Manmohan singh Era

• The government of Manmohan Singh initiated a policy to intensify the peace process and dialogue with Pakistan.
• On 24th September 2004, Manmohan met Musharraf on the side lines of the UNGA Summit in New York.
• Singh outlined his vision of deepening the relationship with Pakistan to such an extent that the borders on the ground dividing the two nations would become irrelevant.
• Confidence Building Measures (CBM) were taken to normalise the situation in Kashmir as well.
• The launch of a composite dialogue between the two sides saw intensive discussions on bilateral issues ranging from Wullar Barrage to Siachen Glaciers demilitarisation to discussions on Tulbull Project.
• A bus service from Srinagar to Muzaffarabad was undertaken as an important CBM. Public opinion on both sides welcomed the diplomatic overtures.
• The policy of Manmohan was to evolve bilateral relations based upon a strong constituency of peace, and working towards the establishment of a favourable public opinion.
• But we should not forget that the trust deficit was not bridged and the cordial atmosphere of the relations were constantly affected due to Jihadi attacks in India.
• Despite attacks in Delhi (2005), Varanasi (2006) and Mumbai (2006) however, dialogues continued, with Indian public opinion gradually tilting towards impatience.
• The relationship with China under Manmohan took a momentous step ahead.
• In 2005, the Indian foreign secretary, Shyam Saran, and Vice-Foreign Minister of China, Wu Dawei, met in Beijing.
• A new strategic dialogue unfolded between the two sides, on topics ranging from UN reforms to combating terrorism.
• In April 2005, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited India and both sides entered a new phase of strategic and cooperative partnership.
• Emphasis was laid upon improving economic and trade relations and cooperation in the defence dimension.
• Efforts were made to resolve the border dispute by the adoption of a new set of guidelines.
• Intense negotiations followed on bilateral issues, especially on the border disputes, but no solution was reached except that the differences were significantly narrowed. In 2006, both sides agreed to intensify military cooperation and defence became a new CBM between both sides.
• In 2006 itself, the two sides decided to boost bilateral trade and reopened the Nathu La Pass.
• The two sides also agreed to cooperate than compete with each other in each other’s search for energy supplies.
• 26/11/2008 Attack is intelligence failure.

India USA

• The most remarkable feature of Manmohan Singh’s foreign policy was a successful India-US civil nuclear cooperation agreement.
• In 2005, Manmohan Singh visited United States, and in that visit, the two countries made a joint statement to enter into cooperation in Civil Nuclear Energy.
• India agreed to separate its civil and military nuclear facilities and place all its civil nuclear facilities (14) under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguard and in exchange, the United States agree to work towards full civil nuclear cooperation with India.
• India would also be given recognition as a de facto nuclear-weapons state; and nuclear-related supplies to and from India would be accepted by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
• This agreement and India’s acceptance to put its civil nuclear facilities under IAEA created a storm in the domestic politics, leading Left to withdraw support from Manmohan Singh Government. However, the government survived with the support of Samajwadi Party.
• And finally put the agreement in effect in 2008. This agreement was significant because India had not signed NPT and CTBT and had conducted nuclear tests just 7 years ago.
• The Indian Government believed that this agreement would help India to join the international nuclear mainstream.
• 2010, India bring Nuclear Liability Act – If any damage by fault of Nuclear reactor the country which establish the plant is take responsible give compensation.

India–Russia

• The India–Russia ties that had been stabilised by Boris Yeltsin were renewed afresh during the regime of Vladimir Putin. In 2004, Manmohan and Putin met at the India– Russia Summit.
• The two sides decided to resolve their long pending disputes related to defence.
• India was concerned about the supply of defence spares and their timely delivery and pricing. Russia was concerned about India’s IPR laws.
• uring the 2004 summit meeting, India conveyed its assurance to Russia that it would respect intellectual property rights of all equipments supplied to India by Russia and ensure they were neither copied nor secretly stolen by any state. (India do reverse engineering; Russia say to stop. At Sing time India ensure that does not do reverse engineering).
• The two sides subsequently strengthened cooperation in Defence and energy in the years ahead.

India-Nepal

• One of the big challenges that Manmohan Singh faced during his tenure as the PM at the foreign policy level was related to Nepal.
• In 2005–2006, Nepal initiated a movement to rewrite its Constitution. The public opinion in Nepal was majorly against the monarchy.
• As Nepal took up the path of democracy, the Maoist elements in Nepal joined the democratic momentum.
• Though India did favour democracy in Nepal, it was worried about how or whether the Maoists would integrate well within the democratic process.
• Under intense international pressure, in 2006, the King restored democracy which was under suspension since the beginning of the Jan Andolan.
• India welcomed the move and kept a close watch on the unfolding Constitutional saga in Nepal.

Organisation & Other Country

• Manmohan Singh continued to deepen India’s relationship with the ASEAN states which had started with a sectoral dialogue partnership between India and ASEAN at the end of the Cold War.
• India and ASEAN concluded a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in goods (2010) and services (2012).
• The India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway (TH) project under the Mekong Ganga Cooperation Initiative was started in 2005.
• It was one of the vital project to improve cross border connectivity between India and Myanmar.
• Singh also invested tremendous diplomatic capital to strengthen ties with Japan.
• The two sides, under the leadership of Manmohan Singh and Shinzo Abe, concluded an agreement to establish a single seamless whole envisaging free movement of navy, capital and people.
• Manmohan also strengthened Indian ties with Africa. India launched multiple initiatives, ranging from Focus Africa Programme to Pan-Africa-e-Network Projects, to enhance people-to-people ties.
• The ties with West Asia saw resurgence based on the theme of oil diplomacy. It was during Manmohan Singh’s regime that the India and Saudi Arabia concluded a strategic partnership agreement.
• Cooperation with UAE, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman continued. India and Qatar signed an agreement on LNG and Qatar decided to supply India LNG for energy security.
• The foreign policy of Manmohan Singh saw India emerge as one of the lead players in the reconstruction of Afghanistan(Construct Parliament, Dam, Indira Gandhi Hospital, Highway, Chabahar Port etc…).

His ten-year tenure as a Prime Minister gave Manmohan Singh an opportunity to touch all dimensions of international relationships, ranging from the Great Powers, Middle Powers to the immediate Neighbours.