PM Modi's personal chemistry has emerged as a powerful tool in diplomacy: Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar

NEW DELHI: The Modi government has made unusual diplomatic initiatives in the neighbourhood and elsewhere, in the past one year, to make India a power to reckon with, foreign secretary S Jaishankar has claimed. Speaking after the launch of a book, Modi’s World, authored by C Rajamohan, in New Delhi on Friday, Jaishankar highlighted that the PM’s personal chemistry has emerged as a powerful tool in diplomacy.

Jaishankar who took reigns of MEA last January eloquently referred to the Madison Square Garden address, PMs meeting with Xi Jinping at Xian and meetings with Barack Obama and Shinzo Abe. He said that the neighbourhood was priority and China was a strategic challenge as well as an economic opportunity.

Nuclear cooperation with US, Russia and France, besides the ongoing negotiations with Japan and Australia, were highlighted as achievements of the current government, he said.

Speaking at the same platform former MoS for foreign affairs Shashi Tharoor contested the success of the Modi government in foreign policy, particularly on Pakistan. Tharoor said that there was incoherence in Modi’s Pakistan policy swinging between talks & hardened postures.

Similarly, this government has incoherent foreign policy vis-à-vis the Israel-Palestine issue, claimed Tharoor, who is also the chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs. He noted that the BJP, which had opposed both nuclear liability law as well as LBA with Bangladesh, have taken steps to make them a success after attaining power.