New Delhi:
As the world steps into 2025, India is gearing up for a packed diplomatic calendar, marked by high-stakes visits and crucial summits that will shape the country’s foreign policy landscape. The year is set to begin with a flurry of diplomatic activities, starting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s visit to the United States.
Jaishankar’s trip to the US, scheduled from December 24-29, is a strategic move to align India’s interests with the incoming Trump administration. He will be meeting officials from both the outgoing Biden administration and the Trump transition team, laying the groundwork for high-level meetings post-Trump’s inauguration on January 20. A key agenda item is securing an early date for Donald Trump’s visit to India for the Quad Summit, a critical gathering of leaders from Australia, India, Japan, and the United States.
The diplomatic calendar for India in 2025 is filled with significant events. In mid-January, Singaporean President Tharman Shanmugaratnam will visit India, marking the beginning of a series of high-profile visits. This will be followed by the visit of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto Djojohadikusumo, who will be the chief guest for the 2025 Republic Day celebrations. Chilean President Gabriel Boric Font is also expected to visit India in March or April.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is planning several key trips, including a visit to France in February and another to Japan for the annual summit. The year will also see Modi potentially traveling to China for the SCO summit, where a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping is highly anticipated, especially given the normalization of the situation at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh.
India will also host several important summits, including the annual summit with Russia, which may see President Vladimir Putin’s first visit to India since the Russia-Ukraine conflict began. The BRICS summit in Brazil and the SCO summit in China are other significant events on the calendar. Additionally, India will host the next edition of the India-EU summit, with several European leaders expected to visit.
Towards the latter half of 2025, Prime Minister Modi may travel to South Africa for the G20 summit and to Malaysia for the ASEAN summit, further solidifying India’s global engagements.
