Eastward Ho! PM Narendra Modi sups at many high tables this month

This is a month when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is covering more ground? literally and figuratively? overseas than within the country. For half the month, he would be travelling, from one high table to another on the world stage, besides taking centre stage in bilateral and regional meetings.

With his packed diplomatic calendar from November 11-27, Modi would actually be making a ?stop-over? in Delhi for a few days beginning November 20 ? when he returns from Fiji ? before heading to Nepal for the SAARC Summit from November 25-27. There?s so much happening on the foreign front that he can?t even mark attendance everywhere. So he had to skip the APEC Summit hosted by Beijing. Although Modi would be travelling to only four countries ? Myanmar, Australia, Fiji and Nepal ? he would be meeting between 20 and 30 leaders, and some of them in more than one forum.

He set out, on November 11, for the ASEAN and East Asia Summit (EAS) meetings in Naypyidaw (Myanmar), where he interacted with leaders from 18 countries including host Myanmar?s President Thein Sein and the iconic Aung San Suu Kyi. Among the heavyweights present at the two-day summit were the US, China, Japan and Russia.

From this gathering of 18, Modi headed for the summit meeting of the Group of 20 in Brisbane. Done with the G-20 summit,  a special address to Indian-Australians in Sydney, a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Tony Abbott in Canberra and a public reception in Melbourne are the other high points of his Mission Australia.

This was the first bilateral visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Australia, after that of Rajiv Gandhi in 1986. Hardly surprising then that Modi described his visit as both ?special and historic?. From Australia, Modi would be going to Fiji. The last time an Indian PM visited the islands was three decades ago.

When he returns on November 20, Modi would have attended more summits and met more world leaders within six months of assuming office than any other Prime Minister before him. He would have attended some of the most important multilateral and regional forums and met leaders of all the neighbouring countries. So much so that when he heads out, on Nov 25, for the SAARC Summit in Nepal, he would be meeting these leaders for the second time in six months.

Just as the EAS in Naypyidaw was keenly watched for whether he would meet Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang and what the two would discuss, the SAARC summit would be of particular interest to observe whether and how Modi interacts with the Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

When it comes to journeying abroad, Modi, much like Manmohan Singh and Vajpayee, is also in the Nehruvian mould of being his own foreign minister though there is an external affairs minister to carry the can. There is nothing Sardar Patel-like about these missions. Vajpayee, when he was external affairs minister in the Janata Party government of Morarji Desai, came to be nicknamed ?Voyagepayee? because of his penchant for foreign travels.

That Modi would be one up on his predecessors does not necessarily mean this government is able to accomplish more than the earlier ones. On the contrary, with so many serial meetings packed within a short span of time, it is a moot point whether anything substantive, other than ?event management? is achieved during these foreign tours.

The author is an independent political and foreign affairs commentator based in New Delhi