Policy UpdateAsmatwali Background India and Japan trace their contemporary partnership to the 1952 Peace Treaty, progressively upgraded into a “Global Partnership” (2000), a “Global and Strategic Partnership” (2006), and the “Special Strategic and Global Partnership” (SSGP) in 2014, anchored since…
Diplomatic ties between India and the Philippines were established in 1949, and a Treaty of Friendship was signed in 1952, but the relationship was not very intense during these early decades for the next six decades, owing to a number of factors, including geographic separation, competing Cold War affiliations and limited economic integration. The Indian government's Look East policy, now known as Act East since 2014, began to shift India's foreign policy and economic focus to Southeast Asia, whereas increased tensions with China in the South China Sea over the last decade reoriented the Philippines' foreign policy focus toward Asia, which opened the door for greater convergence with India after 2016.
Asmatwali Background India’s pursuit of a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is nearly as old as the UN itself. Independent India was a founding member of the organisation in 1945, and by the 1990s, as the…
Asmatwali Background The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), comprising Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain, is one of India’s largest trading partner blocs. In FY 2024-25, bilateral trade touched USD 178.56 billion (exports of USD 56.87 billion and…
In light of the India-UK Vision 2035 and the pivotal role of critical technologies in the evolving global order, the Technology Security Initiative (TSI) was launched on 24 July 2024 as a bilateral strategic initiative between India and the United Kingdom. The initiative was officially launched by UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy during his visit to India on behalf of the UK Prime Minister.
The fourteen Pacific Island Countries (PICs) occupy less than 0.4% of the world's land area, yet their combined Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) cover close to one-fifth of the Earth's surface. Their strategic location astride critical sea lanes, their vast maritime resources, and their fourteen votes in the United Nations General Assembly have transformed a region once considered peripheral into one of the most actively contested diplomatic spaces of the decade. It is in this region that India has built the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC), its principal institutional vehicle for engagement with the Pacific (ICWA, 2023).
In June 2025, during the Tashkent International Investment Forum (TIIF), India was among the 97 countries that participated in this forum (Global Trade and Technology Council of India, 2025). Active participation by the Global Trade & Technology Council (India) underscored New Delhi's motive to strengthen bilateral ties and invest in key sectors like healthcare, education, textiles, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and diagnostics.