Doing Foreign Policy Differently

24th Lalit Doshi Memorial Lecture · Mumbai · 3 August 2018

Delivered ten months before he became External Affairs Minister, this lecture reads today like the plan for his ministry. Ten changes in the world, and what each one asked of Indian diplomacy.

A widely shared 2026 video clipped this lecture under the headline that its predictions have all come true. This page goes back to the source: the Foundation’s own recording, the official text and a close reading of the argument, paragraph by paragraph.

Watch the recording (Lalit Doshi Memorial Foundation) · Full text, Lalit Doshi Memorial Foundation booklet (PDF)

The argument, paragraph by paragraph

¶ 1 · Why a civil servant’s memorial

He opens by honouring Lalit Doshi, a senior civil servant a decade ahead of him, and says he will treat foreign policy as one part of national development rather than a world apart.

¶ 2 · Change is the only constant

Nations that read change well prosper and those that resist it suffer. He names the USSR, Yugoslavia, Iraq and Libya on one side and China, South Korea and ASEAN on the other. The hard part is the mix of continuity and change, because states build a policy momentum that resists adaptation, especially when politics insists on supposedly permanent principles.

¶ 3 · Seven decades is a long time

The world has stopped rewarding status quo thinking. He cites Justin Trudeau at Davos on the pace of change and notes that “disruption” is now a compliment. Society, technology and relationships have all changed. Every other field of policy has changed with them, so foreign policy should too.

¶ 4 · Ten changes

He lists ten discontinuities: India is a bigger player; power is more dispersed; the United States is recalibrating, including towards India; China’s rise has changed the calculus; the neighbourhood demands more initiative; West Asia and South East Asia have new dynamics; the economic side of diplomacy has grown; the diaspora matters more; the machinery of diplomacy must modernise; and foreign policy is now a direct tool of national development.

¶ 5–6 · India itself

India was the sixth largest economy, expected to be fifth soon and third by 2030, more open to the world than ever and a supplier of technology and talent. It was moving from taking rules to making or at least shaping them, and would soon be the most populous nation. Such a country cannot play a limited role. Permanent membership of the Security Council is the goal; joining export control regimes, leading relief missions in Nepal and Yemen, shaping climate talks and launching the International Solar Alliance are milestones. No herd mentality and no abstention by default.

¶ 7 · Being seen

Influence needs energy and branding. He points to India’s win over a permanent Security Council member in the 2017 election to the International Court of Justice, and to the International Day of Yoga. Standing depends on how much India does and how much it is seen doing.

¶ 8 · A flatter world

After decolonisation, the Cold War, the unipolar moment and globalisation, Western influence has declined and Asia has risen; the 2008 crisis made the G20 real. India should actively exploit this: bolster ties with Russia under Western pressure, partner Japan as it makes security choices, and court Australia, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Germany, a post-Brexit Britain and France. Play the entire field.

¶ 9 · Positioning, not balancing

American nationalism divides the West, China’s rise strains Asian institutions, globalisation is under pressure and rules are often broken, most visibly in trade and technology. A looser, more Hobbesian order rewards the nimblest power with the fewest problems. Issue-based groups like BRICS, the Quad and trilaterals are diplomacy done differently.

¶ 10–12 · The United States

America long valued Indian stability while working to contain its regional dominance and keep parity with Pakistan. That changed after Kargil, through the nuclear deal and closer defence ties. A stronger India should stop being defensive and instead leverage the US: work with it when required and differ when necessary. Even as economic nationalism makes trade central, he advises keeping focus because the structural basis of the relationship has never been stronger.

¶ 13–15 · China

China’s rise is the defining phenomenon of the age. Ancient links have given way to a competitive narrative of the boundary, Pakistan and Tibet; the power gap and the trade deficit have widened. His prescriptions: accept China as an investor with care for security, press for market access, manage the border through infrastructure and asymmetric capability, compete on delivery in South Asia, find common ground where it serves India and build a stable relationship, the logic of the April 2018 Wuhan summit. Two billion-plus nations must learn to accommodate each other.

¶ 16 · The neighbourhood

Borrowing Russia’s idea of the “near abroad”, he argues that the region’s aspirational generation now expects India to do more, not less. India should invest generously and without demanding reciprocity, champion regionalism and above all deliver on connectivity, knowing it will be compared with China.

¶ 17 · Pakistan

Pakistan’s cross-border terrorism rests on the assumption that India’s responses are predictable. That confidence erodes when India is unpredictable, imposes costs and carries world opinion. Regaining the initiative is the long-haul answer.

¶ 18 · The extended neighbourhood

Ties with South East Asia and the Gulf shrank when India closed its economy and revived after reform. These regions now see India as part of the solution to their own challenges, and India navigates West Asia’s politics with new dexterity instead of staying aloof.

¶ 19–20 · Business and the diaspora

India’s standing abroad now rests most on its economy, and its businesses and professionals have shaped its image. The diaspora has become a political and economic force; India owes it welfare, security and attention to mobility, because standing by its people abroad is the least a rising power can do.

¶ 21–22 · Diplomacy as delivery

Diplomacy has left the rarefied world of elites for the public domain. Outcomes are measured in projects delivered, and foreign ministries must integrate with security, economic and opinion-shaping agencies. A prime minister’s visit is now judged by resources, technology, skills and market access it brings home.

¶ 23 · The bureaucracy

He closes on the civil service. China moved faster not only for political reasons but because of better leadership and administrative capacity. Every part of the system has to contribute for a society to change, which is the lesson of a life like Lalit Doshi’s.

In his words

foreign policy too should be done differently (Paragraph 3)
from being a rule-taker to becoming a rule-maker or at least a rule-shaper (Paragraph 5)
The name of the game is less of balancing and more of positioning. (Paragraph 9)
If there is any account that needs to be done differently, it is that with China. (Paragraph 13)
Investing in South Asian connectivity is today the smartest move we can make. (Paragraph 16)
Standing by its people abroad is the least a rising power can do. (Paragraph 20)

Since then

Ten months later, on 30 May 2019, he became External Affairs Minister and began putting the lecture into practice. (MEA)
India overtook China as the world’s most populous country in April 2023, as he expected “in the very near future”. (UN DESA)
The Quad and issue-based groupings he named became central to his tenure; the Quad foreign ministers met in Melbourne in 2022 and India chaired BRICS in 2026. (The Tribune)
Standing by Indians abroad became a defining theme of his record, from the Vande Bharat Mission to Operations Ganga, Kaveri, Ajay and Sindhu. (MEA, Lok Sabha annexure)

परिचय Overview · जीवन Life and career · कार्य The record · विचार Ideas and books · चलचित्र Video library · भाषण Speeches, read closely