NEW DELHI – India has stepped up the pace of opening new diplomatic missions, with an eye on serving the growing Indian diaspora and expanding the country’s global footprint.
In the last seven months, India has opened several consulates and embassies worldwide – from Europe to Asia and Latin America.
On March 8, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar inaugurated a new consulate in Belfast in Northern Ireland, a region of the United Kingdom, as part of a renewed push by India to increase its global diplomatic presence.
It aims to solidify and deepen business connections, as well as support a growing Indian diaspora.
“It made sense after we came back into government to move early to set up consulates,” said Dr Jaishankar, at the inauguration of the Belfast consulate.
“We do see the economic potential (in setting up the mission in Belfast). But, at the same time, we do want it to be very much at the service of the Indian community,” he added.
Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar inaugurated a new consulate in Belfast in Northern Ireland on March 8.PHOTO: INDIAN MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
Apart from Belfast, India in the last seven months has opened consulates in Brisbane in Australia, Marseille in France, Manchester in Britain and Auckland in New Zealand, as well as an embassy in Dili in Timor-Leste and La Paz in Bolivia.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi returned to power for a third consecutive term in June 2024, with the Bharatiya Janata Party in its poll manifesto promising to widen India’s diplomatic presence by expanding the network of missions and diplomats “to pursue the country’s global interest”.
Despite having the largest diaspora in the world and being among the fastest-growing economies globally, India is not among the top 10 countries on the Lowy Institute Global Diplomacy Index 2024.
The index maps the world’s most significant diplomatic networks through the number of diplomatic missions.
India is ranked 11th among 66 countries and territories on the index, behind countries with smaller populations and economies such as Italy and Brazil.
Its diplomatic missions grew to 194 in 2023 from 173 in 2016, according to the index by the Sydney-based independent think-tank. This compared with China’s 274 and the US’ 271, both in 2023.
India, along with Turkey, according to the index, had the fastest growing diplomatic network.
India’s diplomatic corps is also small, considering its increasing strategic and economic significance. It has just over 1,000 diplomats.
As India seeks to play a bigger international role, addressing this imbalance between diplomatic strength and political and economic ambitions has become more urgent.
For one thing, there is the rivalry with China for leadership of the Global South that is emerging as a significant voice in international politics. The Global South broadly refers to countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania.
India is also competing with China in the search for vital minerals and energy to fuel its expanding economy, as well as in the opening up of new trade routes.
A new consulate in Marseille, a port city on the Mediterranean, was inaugurated by Mr Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron in February.
This consulate has also acquired importance as it is expected to help India map out the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, which connects India to the Middle East and Europe through a network of transportation and energy infrastructure.
A new Indian consulate in Marseille, France, was inaugurated by French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in February.PHOTO: INDIAN MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
During a visit in February to the US, where India already has six consulates, Mr Modi said that new consulates in Boston and Los Angeles would open soon.
He had also announced in 2024 that India has decided to open two new consulates in Russia in the south-west city of Kazan and the western city of Yekaterinburg.
India is also discussing with Somalia the opening of a consulate in Mogadishu.
“This is in keeping with India’s growing economy. We need a presence on the ground as India is going to be the third-largest economy in the world (by 2035),” said a senior government official. India at present is the fifth-largest economy by gross domestic product after the US, China, Germany and Japan.
“We also have to cater to the needs of a diaspora that is growing.”
The Indian diaspora, comprising around 35.42 million people, includes 15.85 million Indian nationals, according to numbers up to May 2024 from the Ministry of External Affairs.
The Indian diaspora has significant presence in countries like the US where they number over 5.4 million, and the United Arab Emirates, where there are around 3.5 million Indian workers.
The sheer size of the diaspora means an expanded need for services for its citizens, ranging from passport renewals and repatriation in times of emergency, to registration of births and deaths, and formal certification of documents for various purposes.
Mr Modi, more than any other prime minister, has courted the diaspora for multiple reasons, including for the projection of India’s soft power internationally and the wooing of diasporas to invest back in India.
Large diaspora gatherings outside of India have also helped buttress Mr Modi’s popularity.
While consulates and embassies are planned much in advance and often on a reciprocal basis, retired and serving diplomats told The Straits Times that the demand for more missions and diplomats is a longstanding one.
“For a long time, everybody has been (talking) about how we need more missions, not just due to India’s growing stature, but also to have bilateral ties with every country,” said Ms Sangeeta Bahadur, a retired diplomat who served as India’s ambassador to Belarus and high commissioner to Malta.
She said that when she joined the foreign service in the 1980s, India was recruiting 10 to 12 diplomats annually. The numbers have now more than doubled.
But that is still not enough.
“While we have been expanding the diplomatic service, there is a need for more diplomats and more hands on the mast,” said Ms Bahadur.
In the populous South Asian country with a population of 1.4 billion, the Ministry of External Affairs has a total strength of just 8,697, including 1,123 diplomats – according to figures up to March 2024 – who come in through competitive examinations.
Apart from diplomats, stenographers and interpreters, the number also includes officers who carry out administrative, financial and consular duties and local hires.
“This means that the workload is so high that officers work long hours,” a former diplomat, who did not want to be quoted, told ST, adding that some even work on Saturdays and Sundays.
The recruitment for India’s top diplomats is rigorous. Applicants have to undergo a stringent screening process via the Union Public Service Commission’s written examinations and an interview.
More than a million candidates sit the preliminary exams annually, but only around 1,000 are recruited for different streams of the government. In 2024, out of the total number recruited by the government, 35 were chosen for the Indian Foreign Service.
Former diplomats said that apart from boosting numbers, India needs more diplomats and officers with expertise in areas such as trade or technology, considering the increasingly difficult external environment of widening US tariffs, among other things.
“Sometimes, you need qualified people more than sheer numbers. Now, technology is coming up, so you need technology-oriented people. The need for the old generalist service is gone,” a retired diplomat told ST.
Nevertheless, India has worked to fix gaps, such as by recruiting more diplomats and having more missions. The Ministry of External Affairs told a parliamentary panel in 2024 that around 110 officers are expected to join the service between 2024 and 2025.
It has also, on a short-term basis, started recruiting consultants who are specialists in areas such as maritime security, outer space and Arctic geopolitics.
Diplomats noted that India is actively addressing the challenge of boosting diplomatic strength.
“We need to expand” in terms of both missions and diplomats, noted a government official.
- Nirmala Ganapathy is India bureau chief at The Straits Times. She is based in New Delhi and writes about India’s foreign policy and politics.
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