NEW DELHI: The first nine months of the Narasimha Rao government have seen a veritable flood of foreign dignitaries pouring into India A quick count of VIP visitors since June last year adds up to an astounding figure of 13 described by the Foreign Office as “unprecedented” Add to this the number of not-so-VIPs like junior ministers and government officials who have come here to do some hard talking and one has some idea of how active things have been on the diplomatic front.

And there doesn’t seem to be any let up. April brings the Crown Prince of Thailand the United Nations Secretary General the President of Turkmenistan and an influential deputy of the Russian President The Foreign Secretary level talks with Pakistan are scheduled to be held here sometime in April or May as is the next round of exchanges between the US and India in the nuclear issue.

Exhausted South Block officials admit that they have been forced to reschedule postpones and even refuses visits because they simply do not have the infrastructure to cope with such heavy traffic.

The most striking thing about all this diplomatic activity is the sweep of its reach from southern Africa (President Mugabe of Zimbabwe) to the Far East (Premier Li Peng of China and Prime Minister Huri Sen of Cambodia) from across the Atlantic (the Foreign Minister of Cuba) to northern Europe (the Prince and Princess of Wales) from across the border (Prime Minister Koirala from Nepal) to the new nations of the world (the Presidents of three Central Asian republics dignitaries from all but one continent Australia have come visiting.

The visits have ranged from the ceremonial like that of the Wales to the substantive like that of the Prime Minister of Nepal which put an end to the tension that had crept into Indo-Nepal relations over the past couple of years.

The VIP visits of course got their due share of publicity. But in addition to Heads of State and Foreign Ministers there has been a steady stream of lesser mortals who have come in for some solid bilateral work keeping the Foreign Office on its toes. Two senior men from the United States who deal with security issues for instance Reginald Bartholomew and Ronald Lehman were here in November and February respectively to discuss the sensitive nuclear question. The visit of the Foreign Secretary of Turkey some weeks ago gave India an opportunity to counter lobby on the anti-India stand taken by the Organization of Islamic Countries. The French Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Alain Vivien was here recently to seek ties with French firms for airport and telecommunications equipment’s

The reasons for this deluge of visitors are many. One is the back log that piled up through more. Than a year of political instability in India when tips were abruptly cancelled because no one saw much point in talking to a government teetering on the brink of collapse. International perceptions have obviously changed over the past several months. As a French official accompanying the Minister of State confessed “Now you have a stable government here It was necessary to renew our contacts”.

A substantial portion of the visits in the past few months falls into this category. The Chinese Premier for instance postponed his visit from the V.P. Singh government to the Chandra Shekhar government and finally came to talk to the Narasimha Rao government. The President of Malta the Foreign Minister of the UK the European Community Troika Foreign Ministers and the Portuguese President are some of the others whose trips have been in the pipeline since 1990.

Then the birth of 15 new countries following the disintegration of the Soviet Union has meant more VIPs to receive. Four have already been here the Presidents of Uzbekistan Kazakhstan Kirghizstan and Ukraine. Two more are coming next month from Turkmenistan and Russia. And a couple more have requested dates.

There has been frenzied activity from the neighborhood as well. This is perhaps natural whenever a new government assumes power. Nepal Maldives Bhutan and Bangladesh all sent representatives to New Delhi The Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka has been here twice and Pakistan sent a special envoy in the form of its Foreign Secretary Shahryar Khari.

The heaviest flow has been from the US. Although there has yet to be political visit which is unlikely in an election year in the US there has been a stream from the State Department and the Pentagon. The Naval Chief and the Chief of the Pacific Command are just two of the many defence personnel who have been here in the past few months underlining just how interested the US is in military cooperation with India.

It is impossible to quantitatively evaluate the achievements of all this hectic diplomatic activity. Set against the backdrop of a totally new international order after the exit of the USSR each interaction has been important if only to exchange views and share perceptions as every country especially India goes through the painful exercise of reorienting its foreign policy to establish post-Cold War equations.

For India which is facing severe pressure on various fronts ranging from NPT to Kashmir to intellectual property rights to a new economic policy many of the exchanges have been vital the visits of the Foreign Minister of UK the Chinese Prime Minister and the officials from the US to name a few

The British Foreign Secretary’s endorsement of India’s Kashmir policy and his condemnation of Pakistani aid to terrorism in the valley has been a major gain in the diplomatic battle India and Pakistan are fighting over Kashmir. And it paid concrete dividends during the crisis in February when the rap given to Pakistan by the UK and the EC certainly helped to bring the situation under control.

Although the achievements of the Chinese Premiers trip were somewhat obscured by the controversy over the lathi charge on the Tibetans and the inclusion of the Tibet issue in the joint statement the process of normalization that it has helped to get going cannot be underrated Whether this will lead to a resolution of the contentious border issue in the immediate future or not the fact that India and China are talking again is no mean matter especially in a unipolar world dominated by western powers.

The steady flow from the former USSR is proof of just how fast India has moved in the region after the initial hiccups. Apart from ensuring a supply of defence spare parts from Ukraine and signing up for trade and economic tic ups in Central Asia India’s speed in establishing ties with the newly independent Islamic republics is an effective countervailing force against attempts by Muslim fundamentalists to gain control in these areas a fact which the Central Asian leaders repeatedly stressed while they were here.

The achievements of some visits are self-evident. Yasser Arafats wip for example gave India the green signal to normalize ties with Israel. The Nepalese Prime Ministers visit perhaps the most successful of all helped to restore the traditional amity that has existed between India and Nepal. Jalood the powerful number two for Libya’s Col. Gaddafi dropped in briefly to express regret for stepping on India toes on the Kashmir issue and to seek support on the Lockerbie air crash controversy.

On the whole despite some slips here and there India appears to have notched up several plusses on the diplomatic front. And while the “silly season” for visits will hopefully end as the summer sets in all this movements has left behind enough follow-up work to keep the Foreign Office busy for a long time.

Article extracted from this publication >> April 24, 1992