With India’s diplomatic campaigns spearheaded by the Ministry of External Affairs, Ruchi Verma discusses the role of various institutions that play a pivotal role in shaping and implementing the nation’s foreign policy. These institutions navigate a complex global landscape, addressing challenges while fostering positive and constructive relations with other countries.
India radiates a formidable diplomatic presence worldwide with one of the largest diplomatic networks in the world. The country is proudly commanding 202 missions and posts across the globe, where the tricolour unfurls. At the forefront of steering the nation’s foreign affairs stands the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the primary government agency that is formulating and implementing India’s foreign policy and diplomatic initiatives.
The MEA shoulders a diverse array of responsibilities, spanning bilateral and multilateral intricacies, regional synergies, legal nuances, disarmament endeavours, protocol intricacies, consular services, affairs of the Indian Diaspora, the arrangement of press and publicity, administration, and a myriad of other pivotal aspects.
The ministry is headed by a Cabinet Minister known as the Minister of External Affairs or Foreign Minister or Videsh Mantri, who at present is Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. The Foreign Secretary is an officer of the Indian Foreign Services and is the most senior civil servant heading the Department of Foreign Affairs.
The Ministry of External Affairs is located in the South Block in New Delhi in the same building where the Ministry of Defence and the Prime Minister’s Office are located. Some other offices of the ministry are also located in other venues such as Shastri Bhavan, Patiala House, etc.
The Foreign Secretary is supported by several other bureaucrats that include the Under Secretary, Deputy Secretary, Director, Joint Secretary, Additional Secretary, etc. Presently, the Foreign Secretary is Vinay Mohan Kwatra, the 34th Foreign Secretary.
The Foreign Service officers are the ones overseeing and implementing the policy and furthering India’s interests globally. From fostering bilateral cooperation and catalysing trade promotion to nurturing cultural interactions, orchestrating media liaison, and engaging in the complex realm of multilateral affairs, their role is multifaceted.
The Indian Foreign Service
On 13 September 1783, the Board of Directors of the East India Company passed a resolution at Fort William, Calcutta (now Kolkata), to create a department to help the Warren Hastings administration to conduct ‘secret and political business.’ When the British created the Foreign Department, the foreign services were also initiated to help in the administration of the business of the department, mainly with the ‘Foreign European Powers.’
Governor-General Ellenborough during his tenure, in 1843, carried out several administrative reforms. One of these affected the department and, as part of these reforms, four departments were formed in the Secretariat of the government. These were Home, Finance, Military and the Foreign department. The Foreign Secretary was entrusted with the ‘conduct of all correspondence belonging to the external and internal diplomatic relations of the government’.
Soon enough, the department was bifurcated to distinguish the foreign works with the political works, the former comprising dealings with European powers and the latter with the native princely states. And, the External Affairs Department was then carved out.
It was in September 1946 the Indian Foreign Service was created. In 1947, the department became the new Ministry of External Affairs and Commonwealth Relations. Later, it was renamed the Ministry of External Affairs. In 1948, the first batch that was recruited under the UPSC combined Civil service examination system joined the IFS.
The minister
S Jaishankar is the 30th and the current Minister of External Affairs of India and was the Foreign Secretary from 2015 – 2018. He is presently a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha since 2019. With an illustrious diplomatic career, he is one of the most well-known leaders around the world. S Jaishankar is the second-ever diplomat who was appointed as the External Affairs Minister of India, the first being Natwar Singh.
In 2019, S Jaishankar was conferred India’s fourth highest civilian honour, the Padma Shri. He became the first former Foreign Secretary to head the Ministry of External Affairs as the Cabinet Minister when he was sworn in on 30 May 2019.
He was born in a bureaucratic family as his father was a prominent Indian civil servant, Krishnaswamy Subrahmanyam. Raised in a Hindu Tamil family, S Jaishankar imbibed all the values and principles and so did his brothers. His two brothers are historian Sanjay Subrahmanyam and IAS officer S. Vijay Kumar.
He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1977 and served as the secretary in the Indian mission to the Soviet Union in Moscow from 1979 to 1981. Later, he returned to India and was part of a team that resolved the Indo-US dispute over the supply of US nuclear fuel to the Tarapur Power Stations in India.
He took important positions including being the first secretary at the Indian embassy in Washington DC from 1985 to 1988. He was also the first secretary in Sri Lanka from 1988 to 1990 and there he was also the political advisor to the Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF). After many important positions, he became the Joint Secretary (Americas) at the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi from 2004 to 2007, where he was involved in negotiating the US-India civil nuclear agreement and improving defence co-operation between the two nations.
His tryst with China has been very long and interesting. With a four-and-a-half-year term, S Jaishankar was India’s longest-serving ambassador to China. He was instrumental in handling the Sino-Indian border dispute. In 2013, he was appointed as India’s Ambassador to United States, succeeding Nirupama Rao. On 29 January 2015, Jaishankar was appointed as Foreign Secretary of India.
The diplomatic outposts
Indian embassies and consulates play a pivotal role as ambassadors of India’s interests. These diplomatic outposts are not mere representatives – these are architects fostering trade and investment, guardians providing consular services to citizens, and conduits actively contributing to the fabric of the economic, political, and cultural ties with nations worldwide.
The MEA has many important divisions. The Overseas Indian Affairs (OIA) Division of the MEA emerges as a focal point, with an oasis of services for Overseas Indians, whether they are Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) or Non-Resident Indians (NRIs). This division furthers information dissemination, partnership cultivation, and facilitation.
It strategically concentrates its efforts on trade and investment promotion, emigration facilitation and knits together connections within the Indian Diaspora community, providing not just legal and medical counseling but also a robust support system for overseas Indian workers and women grappling with marital challenges in distant lands.
The Ministry’s expertise lies in balancing national interests with international commitments. It navigates the intricate landscape of multilateral diplomacy, where global priorities intertwine with India’s strategic objectives. The MEA has emerged not only as a guardian of India’s diplomatic interests but as a dynamic force that is energising and facilitating nation’s foreign policy. It’s a beacon of resilience, transforming challenges into stepping stones for a future defined by positive, constructive, and impactful international engagement.
India’s diplomatic institutions, spearheaded by the Ministry of External Affairs, play a pivotal role in shaping and implementing the nation’s foreign policy. These institutions navigate a complex global landscape, addressing challenges while fostering positive and constructive relations with other countries.