Outreach at Hiroshima

Calibrated diplomacy stood India in good stead

India holds the presidency of two important inter-governmental forums this year — the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and the much larger Group of 20 — for which the leaders’ summits are scheduled for July and September, respectively. Set against this background, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s participation in the outreach sessions of the 49th G7 summit in Hiroshima over May 19 to 21, was significant in terms of establishing credible positions for Asia (in the absence of China) and the Global South vis-à-vis the seven rich Western powers of the G7. Inevitably, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine dominated the discourse — the