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Nov

India's Belated Diplomacy: Joins Spin-off Summit, but Loses at the Main ASEAN

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Gopal Misra

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New Delhi | Monday | 3 November 2025

The US President Donald Trump and the Chinese dictator, Xi Jinping, meet just after the ASEAN in South Korea, and thus redefine international trade. The much -trumpeted tariff issue was also relegated from the high table of negotiations.

Meanwhile, the Indian media is seen engaged in justifying the absence of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the ASEAN Summit. The mandarins in the South Block now being reoriented to use the key and vital foreign affairs issues for giving a macho look to the Indian leader

It is quite early to  assess the impact of the virtual address of Modi before the recently held summit of ASEAN in Kuala Lumpur. However, it appears that our young diplomats did their best to get some opportunities for India by participating in the related Summit with zeal.

 It cannot be denied that since the beginning of the third term of Modi, Indian diplomacy, both in strategic and trade terms, has been suffering. It cannot be denied that Trump, being an astute businessman, could overwhelm the Pakistani audience by just offering ‘halal’ non-vegetarian dishes to their army chief,Asim Munir. On the other hand, India's approach to Pakistan has been to promote and support the so-called democratic leaders from Z.A.Bhutto to Nawaz Sharif. These leaders were just the civilian faces of the army headquarters of Rawalpindi.

Holy Cow

Article at a Glance
The article critiques India’s recent diplomatic approach, particularly Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s absence from the 47th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur and the Gaza conclave, where world leaders like Donald Trump and Xi Jinping participated.
 It argues that India’s diplomacy has weakened since Modi’s third term, shifting from strategic engagement to image-building. The U.S.–India defence pact is portrayed as a cover for lost diplomatic ground, while China’s influence in ASEAN, especially in Myanmar, continues to rise unchecked.
The article highlights how ASEAN’s $4.13 trillion economy presents massive trade opportunities that India risks missing due to poor strategic focus. Scholars suggest Modi’s absence may reflect deference to Beijing’s sensitivities, undermining India’s “Look East” policy.
The piece concludes that India must restore its proactive foreign diplomacy to remain competitive in the evolving Asian geopolitical and economic landscape.

Many believe that Narendra Modi has compromised India's aggressive trade diplomacy initiated by his predecessors, especially P.V. Narsimha Rao and Manmohan Singh. These great leaders had brought the Indian economy to be able to compete in international trade, but in its zeal to present Modi as the most deserving statesman, the foreign office has missed the new dynamics in diplomacy.

Earlier, India's poor performance was witnessed during the recently held Gaza conclave, when India lost substantial business and trade opportunities.

The outcome of the recently held 47th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits, which were held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 25-28 October 2025 are to be assessed.

The 11-member countries of ASEAN or the Association of the South-East Asian Nations

comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. As of late October 2025,. Timor-Leste officially became the 11th member of the organisation in this session.

During the two summits held at Gaza and Kuala Lumpur  Trump was present, but Modi chose to skip the two  high -profile interactions. It is just a holy cow approach towards international relations.

The Defence Agreement

The signature of the defence agreement with the US is being projected as a great achievement of the South Block, but it is just an effort to justify the ongoing setbacks to Indian diplomacy.

The Indian analysts of the country's strategic issues have to realise that there is an unfortunate spin off  of these absences of Modi. It has taken years for the Indian establishment to realize that by indulging against anti-American rhetoric unnecessarily harmed the Indian interests evolved by India. It appears that the US strategy in the region and as well as in West Asia could be without assigning any substantial role to India. Instead of understanding and analyzing the fact that India's influence has been on decline in recent years, a section of Indian media is seen claiming these setbacks as the highlights of the Modi diplomacy.

Interestingly, India's inability to reposition her role in the region has further augmented the Chinese influence in the region. It cannot be denied that among the ASEAN countries, Chinese influence is substantial both in their economy as well as in their polity. It has full control on Myanmar, previously known as Bumrah and New Delhi is unable to reassert her presence in the country despite having close ties.

The military dictators of Myanmar having full support of Beijing are keeping the country's democratic leaders, including President Win Myint and Aung Suu Key, in prison. The Modi government is so scared of Beijing that it has not dared to raise the issue of democracy in the international forums. In this context, India can argue that Trump and other so-called champions of democracy in the West too have not dared to question the Chinese sponsored repressive regime in Myanmar.

The South Block should realize that the US-led West has already dumped the struggle for human rights of the Tibetan people. They love the Pakistani army without bothering about the democratic rights of the people.

 In fact, the military rulers of Pakistan, Bangla Desh and now Myanmar are darlings of Washington. At ASEAN the army dictator of Myanmar was seen partying with Trump.

Economic Power House

It is quite amusing how India could miss her participation in the 11-member ASEAN Summit, which represents the world's fourth-largest economic bloc. According to a 2024 estimate its GDP is about 4.13 trillion USD.

A number of countries in the region, perhaps, excluding Myanmar, have successfully been promoting local industries and India cannot ignore their economic success. After China, they have become a global manufacturing hub. In recent years, the region has been attracting significant foreign direct investment (FDI) and playing a crucial role in international trade as a key partner for major economies like China, Japan, the U.S., and South Korea.

The Membership

Earlier, being a much-pronounced non-aligned country, India didn't care to join ASEAN, when it was established on 8 August 1967. It came into existence when foreign ministers of five countries – Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand – met at the Thai Department of Foreign Affairs building in Bangkok and signed the ASEAN Declaration, more commonly known as the Bangkok Declaration.

After her belated realisation that she has lost huge business opportunities, India too joined this non-military alliance. The absence of Modi in the summit is yet to be explained, which cannot be camouflaged by the false narratives of the so-called pro-Modi media, perhaps being woven to fool the domestic audience.

The scholars of the foreign affairs in New Delhi, perhaps belatedly, are trying to decipher the causes that prompted the mandarins in the South Block to advise Modi to miss the summit. It was not only attended by Trump, but also the top leadership of the participating countries.

However, India participated in the minor summits, which took place on the sidelines of the main summit. They are being called the "spin-off" in the context of an ASEAN Summit for percolating down the cooperation at the ground level. They refer to two things: an event or initiative that grows out of the main summit and being called the ASEAN Summit on Spin-off Technologies, or a specific, smaller-scale event that is a "spin-off" from the larger summit, like the 22nd ASEAN-India Summit. The former is a strategic initiative focused on fostering new enterprises, while the latter is a bilateral meeting that takes

US support for ASEAN is multifaceted, encompassing economic, security, and diplomatic cooperation, with the US serving as ASEAN's top source of foreign direct investment and a major trade partner.

India's Concerns for Beijing

In this summit, the absence of the Chinese dictator, Xi Jinping, could have been advantageous for India. However, for many scholars of ASEAN,  the Indian prime minister’s virtual address could be described as deliberate. For them, she might have avoided the Summit to respect the Chinese concerns, which have been trying to have a strong economic presence to control the economy of the region. There is an impression that the ASEAN Summit could be an effort to challenge the growing influence of China in the region.

The US is having military tie-ups with the ASEAN countries, which is being

accompanied by American investments, but for the counties of the region, the Indian support to them is crucial for their stability.

Admittedly, the US contributes to the region’s stability by offering a defence umbrella as well as trading with ASEAN, and strengthens people-to-people ties through educational and leadership programs.

In this context, the Indian participation in the Spin-off meetings of the ASEAN Summit should be taken seriously. It is not just

a strategic initiative, which grows out of the main summit or a smaller-scale bilateral meeting that occurs on its sidelines, but it supports India's look east policies.

There is a consensus among foreign affairs scholars that the Modi regime should not compromise the country's strategic and trade issues to cater to the needs of the ruling party in New Delhi.

The bilateral meeting involves talks between two specific countries, a spin-off initiative or event is a new project that emerges from the larger regional diplomatic effort. It is necessary that India should not miss any opportunity in this highly competitive field. (A veteran journalist, Gopal Misra is a political analyst ,author and media activist who  has been associated with several Indian and foreign newspapers in his long career.)

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