New Prime Minister of India due for Busy Year Ahead

The new Prime Minister of India will have the chance to meet Xi Jinping, the President of China, at least thrice between June and December, aside from a possible visit by the Chinese leader to India later on in the year. As a comparison, there would be barely a couple of potential bilateral meeting with the President of the US, Barack Obama.

The new Prime Minister of our country will also be hitting the ground running as far as the global engagement of India is concerned. Just almost a month after the formation of the new government, the BRICS summit will take place in Brazil in July. This will be the first time the new Indian Prime Minister will be engaging with the rest of the world, most fittingly with other developing countries.

This occasion will see the new Prime Minister interacting with China’s Xi, Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff, South Africa’s Jacob Zuma and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Following the Crimea incident, Russia will possibly be tossed out of important international summits like the G8 and the G20.

Following this the UN general assembly will have to be attended in September, a gathering that may be seen as a coming out party for the new Prime Minister of India, and this event will be closely followed up by the East Asia Summit that will be held at Myanmar in November. Following this, the G20 summit will take place in Brisbane, where the new India PM will have the chance to elaborate his economic vision.

At both the multi-lateral events, the India PM will be meeting the President of China again.There have been indications by China that Xi may visit India for a bilateral summit. Also, the vice-president of India may travel to China earlier.

Both the G20 as well as the East Asia Summit will give the Prime Minister of India a chance to interact with Obama. If it is Narendra Modi who is the upcoming Prime Minister, the meeting with the president of the US may have other implications  over the decade-long ban of Modi’s visa.

It is interesting to note that the new Prime Minister will be attending two important bilateral visits, one to Japan and the other to Russia. The bilateral ties between India and Japan are under a transformation process, in a way that could have serious implications on the two countries evolution as power equations in Asia. An annual summit routine has been set up by India and Japan, which have continued undisturbed even the prime ministers of Japan had been changed every few months.

Also, it is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s turn to travel to India for the India-Russia summit that takes place annually. Though the Kundankulam 3 and 4 agreement may be signed before the next government comes to power, Russia will continue to be an important partner, particularly since Putin will be one again a pariah of the western region.