{"id":120208,"date":"2021-07-21T20:18:12","date_gmt":"2021-07-21T14:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=120208"},"modified":"2021-07-21T20:18:12","modified_gmt":"2021-07-21T14:48:12","slug":"how-a-four-minister-mea-could-amplify-indias-diplomatic-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/how-a-four-minister-mea-could-amplify-indias-diplomatic-power\/","title":{"rendered":"How a four-minister MEA could amplify India\u2019s diplomatic power?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.livemint.com\/opinion\/how-a-four-minister-mea-could-amplify-india-s-diplomatic-power-11626796198986.html\">Livemint<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Relevance<\/strong>: Impact of recent MEA expansion on India&#8217;s diplomatic strength<\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis: <\/strong>The ministry\u2019s expansion signals an intent to ramp up our global profile and gain greater influence.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Introduction:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Recently cabinet expansion added two new ministers of state to join the ministry of external affairs (MEA).<\/li>\n<li>The MEA now has a record total of four ministers catering to India\u2019s foreign relations.<\/li>\n<li>Only the ministries of home affairs, education and social justice have a similar strength of four ministers each.<\/li>\n<li>Four ministers manning \u2018Team MEA\u2019 is a historic development.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>Significance of the move:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Firstly, in India\u2019s <strong>competitive governmental environment,<\/strong> the wisdom of committing more resources to external affairs is often under-appreciated.<\/li>\n<li>Secondly, the link between domestic and foreign interests has convinced India\u2019s public about the utility of external commitments.\n<ul>\n<li>It is a clear demonstration of the <strong>high priority to foreign policy<\/strong> and international engagement.<\/li>\n<li>A failure to grasp the benefits that accrue from investing in external relations had in the past held back the rise of our country.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Thirdly, it will enable India to show a high-level presence in key parts of the world on a sustained basis.\n<ul>\n<li>In diplomacy, partner nations respect a country when its interlocutors are of a certain standing in protocol and hierarchy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Fourth, <strong>due to the paucity of political emissaries<\/strong> of a certain stature, India often has to make do with <strong>representation by bureaucrat<\/strong>s in gatherings of the United Nations\u2019 agencies, the World Trade Organization, the G20, and several regional and sub-regional groupings.\n<ul>\n<li>While bureaucrats do the essential nitty-gritty work.<\/li>\n<li>But there is no better way to emphasize India\u2019s international leadership than to have a minister at a marquee podium speak about politically sensitive issues.<\/li>\n<li>Hence, the symbolic multiplier effects of the four ministers cannot be underestimated. India will come across globally as prepared to lead on big issues.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Fifth, it will ensure <strong>broader leadership oversight of our foreign policy towards<\/strong> particular regions and management of Indian projects abroad.\n<ul>\n<li>For example, building plurilateral connectivity corridors and enhancing strategic coordination with partner countries through innovative ideas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Lastly, <strong>ministerial expansion is only one way to beef up the MEA. <\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>For 2021-22, the MEA got barely 0.52% of the central government\u2019s overall budget.<\/li>\n<li>The Parliamentary Standing Committee observed that the allocation is inadequate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>Way forward:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>The size of the of <strong>Indian Foreign Service (IFS) cadre<\/strong> must be considerably enhanced.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Initiating short-term contractual appointments<\/strong> of experts under ministers so that India has sufficient personnel and supplementary diplomatic amplifiers to befit a \u2018leading power\u2019 in the world.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The MEA should bring in further reforms so that India could one day match China and the US in global presence and impact.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Livemint Relevance: Impact of recent MEA expansion on India&#8217;s diplomatic strength Synopsis: The ministry\u2019s expansion signals an intent to ramp up our global profile and gain greater influence. Introduction: Recently cabinet expansion added two new ministers of state to join the ministry of external affairs (MEA). The MEA now has a record total of&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/how-a-four-minister-mea-could-amplify-indias-diplomatic-power\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How a four-minister MEA could amplify India\u2019s diplomatic power?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10316,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[8541,8553,587],"class_list":["post-120208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-diplomacy","tag-four-minister-mea-could-amplify-indias-diplomatic-power","tag-gs2","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704763935},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120208\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}