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✍️ Written by Saket Suman Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday spoke with Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan ,  President of the UAE, and  condemned attacks on the UAE while also stressing the urgent need to ensure safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz. This comes as India has simultaneously ramped up nationwide fuel supply safeguards, intensified anti-hoarding enforcement, expanded evacuation operations and stepped up its diplomatic outreach through EAM S Jaishankar in response to the escalating Iran war and widening risks to global energy flows and Indian nationals across the Gulf. File Photo of PM NaMo welcoming President of the UAE at the airport.  Modi said he conveyed advance Eid greetings to the UAE leader and reiterated “India’s strong condemnation of all attacks on the UAE that have resulted in loss of innocent lives and damage to civilian infrastructure,” according to a statement . He added that both sides “...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman The widening war involving the United States, Israel and Iran  has marched from the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean and  has now begun to unfold within India’s extended strategic neighbourhood. The sinking of an Iranian naval vessel near Sri Lanka, missile exchanges across the Gulf, disruptions to energy flows and airspace closures across major aviation hubs have all brought the conflict closer to India’s economic and security periphery. In moments like these, there is always a temptation for countries to claim the moral high ground or issue strong declaratory positions. But for India, the wiser path may lie in something quieter b u t strategically more consequential. Restraint, Vigilance and the careful use of Multilateral Diplomacy.  So far, New Delhi appears to have largely followed that course. File Photo: EAM Jaishankar India’s response to the crisis has been marked less by rhetoric and more by calibra...

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has arrived in India for a four-day official visit that is aimed at strengthening economic cooperation, advancing negotiations toward a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, and resetting bilateral relations, with delegation-level talks scheduled with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on March 2. Mark Carney on his first Official Visit to India. Via: MEA India The visit comes as Ottawa seeks to diversify trade partnerships and build economic resilience amid strained commercial ties with the administration of US President Donald Trump, positioning India — described by Carney as “the world’s fastest-growing major economy” — as a central partner in Canada’s global economic strategy. Carney began his trip in Mumbai on February 27. He is accompanied by a high-level delegation and his wife Diana Fox Carney, where he met Indian and Canadian business leaders, financial experts, innovators and representatives of Canadian pension fu...

Over the crucial week in February 2026 that hosted AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a series of high-level meetings with leaders from Europe, South Asia, Central Asia and Latin America, using the convergence in New Delhi to deepen trade alignments, technology partnerships and strategic supply-chain cooperation in an increasingly multipolar world. Representational Image; Via PM NaMo Across the week, Modi met leaders from Sri Lanka, Slovakia, Greece, Switzerland, Estonia, Croatia, Bhutan, Serbia, Kazakhstan and Finland, as well as UN Secretary-General António Guterres, while also hosting Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and earlier welcoming French President Emmanuel Macron during his February 17–19 visit.  The clustering of meetings underscored how technology diplomacy, trade realignment and supply-chain resilience are converging in India’s external engagement strategy. On February 20, Modi met Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 17 welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron to India for an official visit from February 17 to 19, 2026, saying the trip would take bilateral relations to “new heights”, as India and France announced they were upgrading ties to a “Special Global Strategic Partnership” and jointly launched the 2026 India–France Year of Innovation alongside a slate of outcomes spanning defence co-production, critical technologies, health, education, climate cooperation and connectivity. French President with Indian Prime Minister; Via the former. In posts on X, Modi said India looked forward to “advancing our bilateral ties to new heights” and expressed confidence that discussions would strengthen cooperation across sectors and contribute to global progress, adding that engagements in Mumbai and later in Delhi would provide fresh momentum to the strategic partnership.  The visit included participation in the Artificial Intelligence Impact Summit 2026...

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Saturday described the newly concluded India-European Union Free Trade Agreement (FTA) as a “strategic choice” that will create one of the world’s largest trading zones, combining two economic blocs representing 2 billion people and 25% of global GDP. Image Source: Indian PM NaMo Speaking at the EU-India Business Forum alongside Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, von der Leyen called the agreement a “new era” for global trade that prioritizes “cooperation over fragmentation.”  The FTA, which will lower tariffs, simplify customs processes, and provide stable market access, comes after nearly two decades of negotiations and is expected to unlock significant economic opportunities for both sides. “European companies already employ more than 3 million people in India. In ten years, trade in goods between Europe and India has nearly doubled to €120 billion.  Now this agreement will unleash ev...

India and Canada signed a joint statement to strengthen strategic cooperation in the energy sector during India Energy Week 2026, held in Goa. The agreement marks the first high-level participation by a Canadian cabinet minister, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Timothy Hodgson, at the forum.  File Photo of Canadian PM Mark Carney; Via: Indian Tech and Infra The move renews the India–Canada Ministerial Energy Dialogue and underscores both countries’ shared focus on long-term energy security, trade diversification, and clean energy transition. The development follows directives from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister during their meeting at the G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Canada, in June 2025. Both leaders had emphasized the need to restart senior ministerial and working-level engagements. In a joint statement, India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri and his Canadian counterpart reaffirmed their countries’ complementary energy ...

India and the European Union formally concluded negotiations for a historic Free Trade Agreement (FTA) during the 16th India–EU Summit in New Delhi on January 27, 2026. The announcement was made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and European Council President António Costa during the EU leaders’ official visit to India. The FTA marks the largest and most ambitious trade deal ever signed by India, covering over 99% of Indian exports by trade value and establishing preferential access to the European market for a broad range of goods and services. Image Source: Kaja Kallas The agreement follows years of negotiations, which resumed in 2022 after being suspended in 2013. It aims to integrate the world’s fourth-largest and second-largest economies, together accounting for 25% of global GDP, and create a combined market of two billion people.  The FTA is designed as a modern, rules-based framework that provides certainty for businesses, ...

India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar met with ambassadors from all 27 European Union countries ahead of the high-level state visit by European Council President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen later this month.  The visit will coincide with India’s 77th Republic Day celebrations and the 16th India-EU Summit, where both sides are expected to finalise a historic free trade agreement and deepen cooperation on security and strategic matters. Image Source: EAM Jaishankar In a post following his meeting with EU envoys, Jaishankar described the conversation as an opportunity to take stock of a rapidly evolving global environment.  “Spoke to them about the current state of the world with volatility and instability as the new normal,” he wrote on X.  “Made a case for stronger India-EU relations that will: derisk the world economy by cooperating on resilient supply chains; reassure the international community by providing public goods...

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney used a keynote address at the World Economic Forum to deliver a blunt assessment of the geopolitical moment, declaring that the post-war international rules-based order has collapsed and calling on middle powers like Canada to confront the new reality with clarity and resolve. Image Source: Erik Solheim on X Speaking under the theme “Principled and Pragmatic: Canada’s Path,” Carney warned that the world had entered an era where the strongest states no longer feel constrained by international law or multilateral institutions, using economic integration as a weapon and coercive tool. “We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition,” Carney said. He argued that middle powers are not helpless in the face of rising great power rivalry, but must stop “living within the lie” of a functional rules-based system.  Borrowing from Czech dissident Václav Havel’s 1978 essay The Power of the Powerless , Carney likened current global compliance with dysfunct...