New Delhi: In a year bookended by geopolitical turmoil and great power rivalry, India demonstrated its statecraft in turbocharging a fragmented G20 in adopting with consensus an ambitious roadmap to address major global challenges, and pursued a steely approach to expand its strategic heft in the neighbourhood and beyond in the face of China's increasingly aggressive behaviour.
Induction of the 55-nation African Union as a permanent member of the G20 and managing to produce a leaders' declaration overcoming deep divisions over the Ukraine conflict were seen as major milestones of India's year-long presidency of the grouping of the world's 20 big economies in 2023.
It was for the first time that India hosted the annual G20 summit and New Delhi pulled out all stops in rolling out a grand welcome to top leaders of the bloc including US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin skipped the summit.
Under its year-long G20 presidency that ended on November 30, India hosted over 200 meetings in around 60 cities across the country focusing on a variety of issues like inclusive growth, digital innovation, climate financing and equitable global health access with an aim largely to benefit the Global South or the developing countries.
"The 21st century is a time that has the potential to give a new direction to the entire world," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the G20 summit. The G20 New Delhi leaders' declaration comprised about 83 paras and 87 outcomes covering a wide range of areas for cooperation as well as possible solutions to some of the pressing global challenges including in areas of renewable energy and climate change.
The cherry on top was an announcement on the sidelines of the G20 summit to roll out an ambitious economic corridor encompassing rail and shipping networks among Saudi Arabia, India, the United States and the European Union that was billed as a game-changer. The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) is also seen as an initiative by like-minded nations to gain strategic influence in the face of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that has faced increasing criticism over lack of transparency and disregard for sovereignty of the nations.
In the overall policy framework, India maintained its clear approach towards ensuring a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific against the backdrop of the geo-political turmoil and great power rivalry between the US and Russia-China combine.
The year 2023 also saw India continuing its firm resolve to fashion a regional environment conducive to its strategic interests in the face of China's aggressive military posturing including in eastern Ladakh, as well as Chinese Navy's increasing forays into the Indian Ocean region.
In line with its policy on China, India maintained that the relations between the two countries cannot be normal if peace and tranquillity in border areas is disturbed.
In August, Modi and Xi held a brief and informal conversation in Johannesburg on the sidelines of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) summit. In the interaction, Modi conveyed to Xi India's concerns on the "unresolved" issues along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh, underlining that maintenance of peace and tranquillity in border areas was essential for normalisation of India-China ties.
In line with its priorities for the developing nations, especially the African continent, India hosted two virtual Global South summits, the first one in January and the second in November with a view to overcome challenges posed by various global developments and ways to ensure a more inclusive world order.
A significant aspect of India's foreign policy priority was its resolve to position itself as a leading voice flagging concerns, challenges and aspirations of the Global South or the developing nations. India also focused on boosting its engagement with friendly countries in its neighbourhood, Central Asia, Europe and Africa.
India-Canada relations came under severe strain following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's allegations in September of a "potential" involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a gurdwara in Surrey city on June 18.
New Delhi rejected Trudeau's allegations as "absurd" and "motivated" and accused Canada of giving space to Khalistani extremists targeting India. Weeks after Trudeau's allegations, Canada pulled 41 diplomats out of India following New Delhi's demand for ensuring parity in diplomatic presence between the two sides.
In another development, the US federal prosecutors in November charged Indian national Nikhil Gupta of working with an Indian government employee in a foiled plot to kill Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil. Pannun, wanted in India on terror charges, holds dual citizenship of the US and Canada. India constituted a probe committee to investigate the allegations.
Notwithstanding the allegations by the US prosecutors, the overall ties between New Delhi and Washington witnessed a major upswing in 2023 after Prime Minister Modi's historic state visit to Washington in June followed by US President Biden's trip to India in September for the G20 summit.
A key aspect of Indo-US engagement was collaboration in seven specific high-technology areas including semiconductors, next-generation telecommunication, artificial intelligence and defence under the 'Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET)'.
In October, there were consternations in New Delhi after a court in Qatar handed down the death sentence to eight former Indian naval personnel. However, in some relief, the Court of Appeal in Qatar in December dropped the death sentence and gave them prison terms for varying durations.
India maintained a nuanced approach in reacting to the Hamas-Israel conflict. While India strongly condemned the October 7 attacks on Israel unleashed by Hamas, New Delhi repeatedly called for early and peaceful resolution of the conflict through "dialogue and diplomacy".
New Delhi also called for creating conditions for an early resumption of direct peace negotiations towards a two-state solution to the Palestine issue.
On the conflict in Ukraine too, India maintained that a resolution must be found out through dialogue and diplomacy. The year 2023 witnessed India maintaining its diplomatic offensive against Pakistan on the issue of terrorism and remained firm on its position on not having any talks with Islamabad until it stops cross border terrorism.
India also focused on improving regional connectivity with countries in its neighbourhood as well as with several central Asian nations.
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