THE GIST of Editorial for UPSC Exams : 05 May 2020 (Diplomacy in a virtual world (Indian Express))



Diplomacy in a virtual world (Indian Express)



Mains Paper 2: International Relations 
Prelims level: India relations with Saint Vincent and Grenadines
Mains level: Diplomacy in a virtual world 

Context:

  • The Foreign Office is merely following other professions that are adapting to restrictions on travel across borders and within them by the corona crisis.
  • Not many in Delhi’s political, bureaucratic, and chattering classes will be able to find a nation called Saint Vincent and Grenadines on a large world map. 
  • But External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar was on a call last week with the foreign minister of this small nation formed by many islands.

Background: 

  • Die-hard cricket fans will object to our proposition on Saint Vincent and Grenadines. 
  • Beyond cricket, island nations like Dominica, St Lucia, and Saint Vincent and Grenadines rarely feature on India’s diplomatic radar. 
  • They are sovereign states and members of the UN. Some of them are part of institutions like the Commonwealth. 
  • All of them are in important regional organisations in the Caribbean and Latin America. 
  • Jaishankar was on line with all three last week, as part of a comprehensive global outreach.

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Turning adversity into an opportunity:

  • The South Block is turning this adversity into an opportunity — to conduct a lot of routine diplomatic engagement online. 
  • The Foreign Office is merely following other professions that are adapting to restrictions on travel across borders and within them by the corona crisis. 
  • Work that was considered deeply inter-personal, like teaching, has now gone virtual as universities moved to cope with the massive disruption in their academic schedules. 
  • Diplomacy is another profession that requires facetime for both formal and seemingly informal work.

Required negotiations or consultations:

  • Negotiations or consultations of any kind required sitting across a table in a chancellery. 
  • Diplomats also work in less formal settings — say signalling a nuance in a quiet corridor conversation. 
  • They also assess the political mood in the host capital over drinks and dinner with local leaders. 
  • Official meetings involve a lot of detailed agreements on form and structure. And it is easier to discuss complicated issues in a pleasant setting.
  • Delhi took the lead in getting the South Asian leaders to meet through video to explore cooperation in combating the corona crisis. 
  • Delhi also pressed for a G-20 video meeting. Since then the UNSC, EU and NATO have all conferred through video. 
  • Besides the conversations with foreign leaders, senior officials of the South Block are engaging foreign embassies in Delhi through video. 
  • Diplomatic missions in Delhi have long complained that they barely get access to the MEA.
  • The Indian missions abroad have the same problem — of the GoI’s radio silence on responding to queries from foreign governments. 
  • Delhi is trying to make amends with the new medium. 
  • The EAM has begun regular engagement with ambassadors in various regions and sub-regions in recent days.

Reaching out to the heads of missions:

  • PM Modi had set the tone by reaching out to the heads of missions on the questions of safety and security of Indians abroad. 
  • Union Minister Piyush Goyal has followed through by interacting with commercial officers at the Indian embassies. 
  • Hopefully, other ministers and senior officials will make interaction with the embassies a regular affair.
  • To be sure, there is some resistance across the world’s foreign offices against virtual diplomacy. 
  • There are some real difficulties, technical and substantive, that will have to be overcome. 
  • Foreign offices, however, have learnt to work with new technologies, whether it was the trans-oceanic cable or the internet. 

Conduct a virtual summit:

  • There is speculation that PM Modi could conduct a virtual summit with Prime Minister Scott Morrison. The Australian leader had cancelled his visit to Delhi earlier this year because of forest fires at home. 
  • It should not be impossible for Modi and Morrison to sign a joint statement, finalised by officials, at the end of video conversation. 

Conclusion:

  • Much of MEA’s energy goes into organising visits, but the follow-up has always been hard. 
  • Virtual diplomacy makes high-level engagement less burdensome. 
  • Involving the whole government should make the implementation of summit-level decisions a bit easier. 
  • An India that reboots after the lockdown could do with all the diplomatic efficiencies it can generate.

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Online Coaching for UPSC PRE Exam

General Studies Pre. Cum Mains Study Materials

Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the Lithium, consider the following statements:
1. Researchers at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), an autonomous institute under the Department of Science &Technology have recently discovered hundreds of Li-rich giant stars. 
2. Lithium (Li), is one of the three primordial elements, apart from Hydrogen and Helium (He). 

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer..............

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Mains Questions:
Q.1) As COVID-19 changes the world of diplomacy, South Block is getting ahead of the curve. What about bilateral summits? Could they be done online?