​Home and abroad: on the Prime Minister’s five-nation diplomatic tour

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tour to the UAE and Europe — the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Italy — had a multi-pronged agenda. Much of the visit had been planned last year, including the India-Nordic Summit that had to be cancelled after the 2025 Pahalgam attack and conflict. It came amid a new push for India-Europe ties that have been forged at a time of growing concern over superpower behaviour — from Russia’s attacks on Ukraine and the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran to China’s coercive economic measures — all of which challenge the international rules-based order. The India-EFTA trade agreement, which came into force last year, and the India-EU FTA, to be ratified/signed later this year, reflect a shared desire to diversify supply chains and markets, particularly with Nordic countries, where bilateral trade with India remains below $20 billion. Finally, the visit came days after Mr. Modi’s new “austerity” push for foreign currency and energy conservation. Discussions in the UAE on long-term Strategic Petroleum Reserves, and in Europe and at the Nordic-India Summit on the “Green Strategic Partnerships”, were aimed to advance collaboration on energy security. Each of Mr. Modi’s stops included robust conversations on the Ukraine and Iran conflicts, bilateral and multilateral talks. There was also a focus on AI governance and critical mineral initiatives. The Nordic countries focused on maritime cooperation and scientific collaboration in the Arctic, which has been hit by climate change. While the visits yielded few concrete outcomes or actual trade deals, the bonhomie and awards conferred on Mr. Modi, indicated expectations of deeper India-Europe collaboration. The engagement will be strengthened as he travels in June for the G-7 outreach summit in France and a bilateral visit to Slovakia, and later this year for the India-EU FTA signing in Brussels.

The picture of common aims and shared values cracked somewhat, however, over controversies in the Netherlands and Norway, where journalists questioned their leaders and Mr. Modi for not addressing any press conferences during the visit. While press meets are the norm across Europe, Mr. Modi has mostly stopped taking questions during his foreign tours, and has not held a press conference in India since 2014. Such press engagements are the prerogative of a leader, and may not evince a response in some countries, but the refusal to take questions clearly stood out in the countries Mr. Modi travelled to. Addressing the press after the India-Nordic Summit in Oslo, Mr. Modi said that their “shared commitment to democracy, the rule of law, and multilateralism” made them “natural partners”. That commitment, particularly to transparency and accountability that comes with any democracy, must be manifest internally first, and not because of any objections raised abroad.