In a world with more than one centre of power, multilateralism has incentivised developing and developing centres to share a table and engage in meaningful discussions. Multilateral diplomacy has been an effective catalyst for India's external relations in the years after independence. Diplomats have been the foot soldiers of India's ethos in different summits, negotiations and assembly sessions, holding the flag high. 

So, how did India's foreign service contribute to sustainable multilateral diplomacy? What are the different sets of case studies, incidents and turning points that define this school of thought?

The third episode in The Bridge Project Diplomacy Series features Ambassador Kishan S Rana and Ambassador Asoke Kumar Mukarji in which they speak about 'Approaches to Multilateral diplomacy'.

Ambassador Rana is currently Professor Emeritus and a Senior Fellow at the DiploFoundation. During his distinguished Indian foreign service career, he worked in the China desk from 1963-1965 and 1970-72 and was also Ambassador and High Commissioner to Algeria, Czechoslovakia, Kenya, Mauritius, and Germany.

Ambassador Mukerji, currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Vivekananda International Foundation, served in the Indian Foreign Service from 1978 to 2015. He went on to serve as the Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations from 2013 to 2015 during which he crafted the successful campaign in the United Nations General Assembly to have a Resolution adopted by consensus to declare 21 June of every year as the International Day of Yoga. 

In this episode of The Bridge Project Exclusives, they speak on a range of themes such as the structure and institutional capacity of the Indian diplomatic legacy; incidents of significance; diplomatic skills required for bilateral and multilateral diplomacy and path for the future.

Show Notes

1. Kishan S Rana, “Fixing India’s Strategic Thinking Vacuum”, The Wire, https://thewire.in/diplomacy/india-strategic-thinking

2. Kishan S Rana, “21 st Century Diplomacy: Globalized Diplomacy”, Diplo
Foundation, https://www.asef.org/images/docs/ModelASEM_Diplo_GlobalizedDiplomacy.pdf

3. Asoke Kumar Mukerji, “The impact of Multilateralism in India”, Indian
Foreign Affairs Journal Vol. 13, No.4, http://www.associationdiplomats.org/Publications/ifaj/Vol%2013/13.4/IFAJ-13.4-ARTICLE%202-F.pdf 

4. Asoke Kumar Mukerji, Speech by Ambassador Asoke Mukerji on 70th Anniversary of UN Charter, https://www.pminewyork.gov.in/pdf/uploadpdf/1883670th%20anniversary%20UN%20stmnt%20PR%20June%2027,%202015.pdf

5. Asoke Kumar Mukerji, “China’s Multilateral gambit in South Asia”, National Security- Vivekananda International Foundation Vol. II, https://www.vifindia.org/sites/default/files/national-security-vol-2-issue-3-article-AMukerji.pdf

Attribution:
The Bridge Project (2020), "India's Experience in Multilateral Diplomacy: A Practitioner's Perspective", Exclusives (3), 24 May 2020, URL: https://www.buzzsprout.com/921337/3891464 

Research Credits:
Akshita Goyal & Prarthana Puthran

Music Credits:
Inspired by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3918-inspired
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/