 Hello everyone welcome to another episode of international relations for the Shankar IAS Academy. This class I would like to divide into two at the end of the 2023 and the beginning of 2024. Today we will discuss the general international relations situation of India in 2023 and maybe at the next capsule we will talk about the possibilities of the new year, what is likely to happen in 2024. So speaking about 2023 we can easily say that it was one of the most difficult year in the history of international relations. First of all 2022 was pretty bad and most people were expecting that 2023 will be a year of reconciliation, kind of revival of international relations, greater understanding about the problems and solutions to many of the issues which came up in 2022. But contrary to this expectation, 2023 continued to be difficult in many ways with the number of issues which remained unresolved after 2023 and fresh issues being added in 2022 and then fresh issues being added in 2023. But if you look at India's own performance during the year in international relations, we have reasons to be fairly satisfied that we were able to deal with many of these difficult situations and came out fairly well in many of the issues that confronted the world. India in a sense emerged as a consensus builder or a consensus maker rather than the champion of a particular aspect. Of course without forgetting the fact that we are a developing nation and we had to stay with the global south as far as international relations are concerned. So, it was possible for us to maintain a posture of dealing with all countries regardless of their commitments even if there were some of them were adversaries among themselves and in some case adversaries against India itself. So, it was not an easy task to do but the intention of India to deal with all countries regardless of their commitments and postures to speak for peace and also to bring about reconciliation. So, most important thing in this respect is the kind of participation we had in the international stage which we chaired the chairmanship of G20, also the chairmanship of the SCO and we attended the BRICS summit. India was invited to G7 summit in Japan where also there was a meeting of the Quad then the voice of the global south summit. All these international fora had several difficulties and problems but India's role in a sense saved these conferences and also gave India a voice which people heard with respect. Looking at bilateral visits we know that the state visit to the US of the Prime Minister in the invitation of President Biden. He was invited to address the US Congress and this underlined the growing strategic strength, this growing strategic relationship of India and the US in spite of some differences over our relations with Ukraine. India not imposing sanctions against Russia, charges by some groups in the United States against the so-called backsliding of democracy in India, that kind of campaign and most recently an allegation that India was somehow involved in the so-called Pannun affair and so despite these difficulties and which were somewhat negative, the relationship grew substantially because of the agreements reached during Prime Minister Modi's visit and one of the most important things which came out of that summit was the emerging technologies and the role in it for India and new technologies like jet engines and various other commitments for transport technology because many of these are yet to be worked out but some of these were very significant and once these are materialized, certainly India will be at an advantage in developing and promoting the kind of relationships that are required in the new situation. Another important bilateral visit was to France to the Bastille Day, the President of France invited him to be the chief guest at the, it is not very common for them to have chief guests on every national day like in India and this was particularly significant because of the international situation and the emerging conflict and rivalry between the United States and China and the general feeling among the countries of the world that we need to have a new global order. So our economic ties with France have been improving also and the technological capacities and our diplomatic dynamism were recognized by the French government. Then came the G-20 presidency for which preparations were made for a whole year and India took many initiatives rather unusual in multilateral conferences with a view to bring about a common understanding on the problems of the world and this was difficult because on the one hand we had the United States and NATO on the other hand we had Russia supported by China and the advantage that we had was we had access and also we had good communications with all the parties concerned. The main thrust of the G-20 was not only economic issues which are normally the subject of G-20 meetings but the most prominent conflicts in the world at that time which is the Russia-Ukraine conflict. So several attempts were made in other fora to bring about some kind of an understanding on these issues which are acceptable to Russia and China on the one side and the west on the other but Prime Minister Modi was very clear right from the beginning that this was not an era of conflict and it could be of peace and we also did not take part in the kind of sanctions that were advocated by the west and therefore we had a so it was not neutral in that sense we had a fairly acceptable position as far as both sides were concerned and that is why even though the ministerial meeting did not produce an agreed declaration the summit was able to do so and that was the first day itself and this was a fully agreed and needed declaration without any preservation by either side and there are some substantial paragraphs or paragraphs on economic costs for the global south and it also seemed to meet the diplomatic needs of G-7 and Russia and even China. So the most outstanding achievement of G-20 was it altered the international agenda to a certain extent and also took on the responsibility of dealing with a political issue in the absence of agreement between the two sides and this adversarial relationship exists between other countries but still India was able to steer clear of those and produce their document although it may not have created a situation on the ground but as far as India is concerned our responsibility as the conference was to be to bring about a particular consensus which is acceptable to all without any reservation and on other things also the economic issues the basic approach we made was to look at the demands and the requests and the problems of the global south. So the there is an effort by all countries in the world in the absence of the old international order which has fast disappearing and the new international order not having been born it was necessary everybody every country is trying to find solutions to the problems and the same time maintaining their own importance in the new global order. So there is a certain amount of support for the existing order but it is not effective and therefore the reason attempt to promote a multi-polar world India itself has been promoting that now even China has started talking about an international order promoting a multi-polar world and therefore some countries even in the western bloc have been hedging strategies by reaching out to China and trying for reconciliation in west Asia etc. So the consequences to multilateralism and pressing issues of climate change etc to be dealt with and though G20 prepared the ground for this which we saw later in other discussions and negotiations. For instance the latest COP28 in Dubai India stood very firm on its grounds for the core interests of developing countries accelerated implementation of the SDGs and even though India and China are present lot in a conflict in Ladakh and also in the eastern sector we were able to have a conversation with China in the context of the international dialogues. So G20 success in developing a consensus and enhance the credibility of India not only with north and south and also to a limited extent between west and east with the exception of China. The engagements in BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organization was another balancing act we moved closer to the US to prevent the or those who are supporting an international order like the US but recognizing its deficiencies and the others who are challenging it openly and we have become the upholder of the international order but certainly not the present one but a more reformed democratic and equitable. This message came out very clearly in all these negotiations. India has its own economic interest in this whole new emerging world as we call it and we have to we should be the beneficiary of the shifting supply chains and not based strictly on the older system of west exporting to the east and east importing from the west but also things like making India etc which gave the our greater way voice and role for itself in the developing world. So the voice of the global salts changed the agenda of the G20 for those of the developing world. So BRICS took care of our interests in the west and this is a CEO took care of the East. The dissatisfaction in a west dominated global system emerged with the proposals for de-dollarization etc. It has not made much progress but in all this we maintained a position of peace and also creating an atmosphere for a better in 2040. In this context it is noticeable that when President Biden referred his inability to come to Republic Day in 2024, India turned to the president of France and at very short notice he accepted it. This of course was also in response to Prime Minister Modi's visit to France but also as an indication that when the US failed in some respect to keep its obligation to come to the United States, France had no hesitation in adopting the in accepting the invitation and he'll be our guest and naturally his presence in Delhi will bring greater understanding between India and France particularly in the India Pacific. So India Pacific cooperation will also get a significant enhancement at the time of the French President's visit. Quad was discussed earlier also and India is establishing the has declared that Quad is establishing a security and economic fronts in the in the Pacific region and this will lead to though we are not inclined towards accepting the Quad as a military pact but cooperation between India and these four countries in India Pacific will naturally be beneficial not only to the four of us but also for the general atmosphere in the Pacific region and where of course efforts are being made by China through its BRI initiative to cultivate each one of these countries and they have been making some progress but the important emergence of Quad as a global good as Prime Minister Marendra Modi keeps referring to it has had its impact and this will be further discussed naturally when President of France is in India. India-China relations of course have been frozen. China will not make any concessions on the border they have clarified and we have said that any future relationship with China will depend on the situation on the border and the situation the border is not normalized will be difficult for us to have a normal relationship with China. So it was significant that China does does not attack India to the extent that it was doing in the past and therefore they are also probably maturing but it is still not yet time for to have a serious dialogue with China. This of course a continuing process it need not be considered as a failure of India in 2023. So India and the most recent visit at the end of 2023 of the external affairs minister to Russia was also significant in this context at the absence of Russia India summit in the last two years the external affairs minister not only visited Russia but also he was received by President Putin and the message that came out clearly was India will nurture its relationship with Russia in spite of the problems that the West has and also the relationship between India and Russia will continue to grow in spite of the difficulties that exists. So the Prime Minister Modi has also been invited to Moscow in 2024. So to summarize 2023 in terms of international relations India steps into 2024 with greater confidence and a better atmosphere of relationship with all the countries in the world. Nobody is looking at India as inimical even China does not do that it looks but problems have to be resolved we have problems with the United States we have problems with Russia we have problems with China but in the case of US and Russia we have been able to make a contribution to make sure that things do not get worse. So all these beginnings have been made in 2023 in spite of it being a very difficult year because all the consequences of the four big disasters of early 25th century like 9-11 the economic meltdown the pandemic the Russia-Ukraine war and also the Hamas-Israel war all these aggravated during 2023 but also some ideas for reconciliation it's a travel brought forward and the role India played in all this is being recognized by everyone and the first bit is with that confidence that we are moving into 2024 and we have to feel satisfied that we have made a big contribution to solution of international relations at a time when the old order changes and the new world order has not come into place so we can look at with hope in 2024 and then our next class maybe we can analyze other kind of developments that are likely to take place in 2024 thank you very much