From Vishvabandhu to Vishvaguru: The Global Rise of Bharat in Two Years of Modi 3.0

From Vishvabandhu to Vishvaguru: The Global Rise of Bharat in Two Years of Modi 3.0

In September 2024, when PM Modi sat across the table from President Vladimir Putin at the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, he brought with him an unusual asset in a world increasingly divided into geopolitical blocs: genuine trust from multiple sides simultaneously. Two months earlier, he had been in Kyiv meeting President Volodymyr Zelensky, making India the first country to engage both leaders at the highest level during the active phase of a war that every other major power had chosen a side in. A few weeks later, he was in Washington discussing AI and quantum computing with the US leadership. A few months after that, he was in the Gulf signing energy security agreements with the UAE and Saudi Arabia. And in May 2026, he completed a five-nation tour of Europe that generated 57 specific outcomes and nearly 40 billion dollars in investment commitments.

No other country on earth was having these conversations simultaneously. No other leader in the world was trusted enough by all parties to sit at every table.

This is India's defining geopolitical achievement of Modi 3.0's first two years: not any single agreement or any single visit, but the collective demonstration that India has become indispensable to the architecture of the 21st-century world order. Every major power needs India. And India has learned to use that need wisely.

The central question Bharat and Beyond examines on this second anniversary week of Modi 3.0: has India emerged as one of the world's most influential powers in these two years?

The answer, backed by evidence, is yes. The journey is not complete. The challenges are real. But the trajectory is unmistakable.

The World India Inherited in June 2024

When the Modi 3.0 government took office on June 9, 2024, it inherited a world in acute strategic disorder.

Russia's war in Ukraine was in its third year, fracturing European security architecture and creating a global food and energy crisis. The US-China competition was intensifying across technology, trade, and military domains, with the world's two largest economies threatening to decouple and pulling other nations into choosing sides. The Middle East was simmering, with the Israel-Hamas conflict from October 2023 creating regional instability that would eventually produce the catastrophic US-Israel-Iran confrontation of February 2026. Global trade was fragmenting as supply chains were restructured for geopolitical resilience rather than pure efficiency.

In this environment, countries that had historically relied on a stable US-led multilateral order found themselves having to make strategic choices they were unprepared to make. Traditional alliances were under pressure. New alignments were forming. And the question of who would lead the world's developing nations through this turbulence was open.

India did not just navigate this environment. It shaped it.

PM Modi's articulation of India's role as Vishvabandhu, a friend to the world, was not merely a diplomatic slogan. It was a description of a deliberate strategic posture: a country large enough and credible enough to engage every major power simultaneously, committed enough to the principles of sovereignty and dialogue to be trusted by nations in conflict with each other, and self-confident enough to refuse subordination to any bloc's agenda.

Senior Indian officials noted that India's investment in all geographies had paid off, as they observed Europe eagerly engaging with India after the Trump administration created transatlantic tensions in early 2025. India's diversified diplomatic portfolio, built over a decade of multi-alignment, had produced precisely the geopolitical insulation that a more aligned foreign policy would have prevented.

India and the United States: Deepening Without Dependence

The US-India relationship has continued its deepening trajectory under Modi 3.0 despite the challenges of navigating the Trump 2.0 administration from January 2025.

PM Modi's February 2025 visit to Washington was described by Indian officials as a success, having produced commitments on security, defence cooperation, and critical technologies. Even during tensions in the relationship, US and Indian defence ministers renewed a ten-year defence framework in October 2025, emphasising deterrence in the Indo-Pacific and cooperation in emerging domains including space, cyber, and AI.

The seventeen increasingly complex defence exercises the United States and India conducted together in 2025 nearly matched 2024's record pace. The Autonomous Systems Industry Alliance has accelerated private sector defence industrial collaboration, venture capital investment, and deep-tech partnerships between Indian and American companies.

India managed the Trump administration's trade pressure with its characteristic multi-alignment pragmatism. When US tariff pressure arrived, India negotiated rather than confronted, seeking to manage the economic impact while preserving the strategic relationship's fundamentals. The technology partnership dimensions of the US-India relationship, particularly in AI, quantum computing, and semiconductor supply chains, continued to deepen even when the trade dimension was under friction.

India's position with the United States is not one of subordination or uncritical alignment. It is one of strategic partnership with clear-eyed management of interests that diverge. When the US makes demands India cannot accommodate, India says so and proposes alternatives. This is the behaviour of a confident, mature strategic partner, not a supplicant.

India and Russia: Strategic Autonomy Under Pressure

The most diplomatically scrutinised relationship of Modi 3.0 is India's continued engagement with Russia. India's decision to continue purchasing discounted Russian crude oil after 2022 was criticised by Western governments and praised by Indian economists pointing to the billions saved in the foreign exchange bill. Modi 3.0 has maintained this position while simultaneously managing the Western relationship through genuine engagement on shared security concerns.

PM Modi's first bilateral visit of his third term was to Russia for the BRICS Summit in Kazan in October 2024. The choice of Russia for a first visit was a deliberate signal: India's foreign policy does not take direction from any external party. The Kazan summit itself produced a significant Indian statement: India's clear refusal to endorse de-dollarisation and its position of national currency trade rather than a unified BRICS currency. This was India resisting both US pressure to abandon Russia and Russian pressure to join an anti-Western economic architecture simultaneously.

In December 2025, President Putin visited Delhi, maintaining the personal diplomatic engagement at the highest level while India continued to call publicly for dialogue and a negotiated end to the Ukraine conflict. PM Modi was the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Ukraine, meeting Zelensky in Kyiv, signalling India's commitment to both sides of the diplomatic equation in Europe's most consequential conflict.

This is strategic autonomy in its most demanding form: maintaining genuine relationships with both Russia and the West during an active war, being trusted by neither side as an unconditional ally and therefore being valuable to both sides as a potential interlocutor.

India and China: Stabilisation After Tension

The India-China relationship, severely damaged by the Galwan Valley confrontation of June 2020, entered a carefully managed stabilisation phase during Modi 3.0.

PM Modi visited China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in September 2024, the first significant India-China leadership engagement after years of border standoff. The SCO meeting allowed both sides to engage at the summit level while broader boundary questions remained under discussion through established military and diplomatic channels.

India-China trade has continued growing despite the political tensions, a fact that reflects both the economic interdependence of the two largest Asian economies and India's pragmatic recognition that complete economic decoupling from China is neither desirable nor achievable in the short term.

The India-China relationship under Modi 3.0 is one of managed competition rather than either confrontation or partnership. India has not allowed the boundary dispute to freeze every other dimension of the relationship, nor has it allowed economic engagement to obscure genuine security concerns. This calibrated approach has avoided escalation while maintaining the diplomatic space needed to eventually work toward resolution.

India and Europe: The Most Transformed Bilateral Landscape

The transformation of India's European relationships during Modi 3.0's first two years is perhaps the most dramatic shift in India's external position since the end of the Cold War.

The May 2026 five-nation tour produced five strategic partnership elevations in six days: the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Italy, and the UAE. The EU-India Free Trade Agreement, which has been under negotiation for nearly two decades, has been concluded and is being described by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as the mother of all deals, targeted for signing by year end 2026.

Europe's eagerness to deepen ties with India is a direct consequence of the new global disorder. The Trump administration's strains on the transatlantic relationship pushed Europe to seek alternative partnerships. India, with its large consumer market, growing manufacturing base, democratic values, and multilateral engagement, is the natural candidate for a deepened Europe-Asia partnership outside the China axis.

The India-Sweden AI Corridor gives India access to Ericsson's 5G and AI ecosystem. The India-Netherlands Strategic Partnership gives India institutional access to ASML's semiconductor technology universe. The India-Italy Special Strategic Partnership gives India a Mediterranean anchor for IMEC and access to Leonardo's defence industrial base. The India-Norway Green Strategic Partnership gives India offshore wind and maritime electrification expertise. Together they represent the most comprehensive engagement of India with the European technology and industrial ecosystem in its history.

The India-Nordic Green Technology and Innovation Strategic Partnership, covering all five Nordic nations simultaneously through the third India-Nordic Summit in Oslo, adds the clean energy, Arctic cooperation, and digital health dimensions to this European portfolio.

India and the Gulf: Energy Security and Human Diplomacy

India's Gulf relationships have been tested by the most serious regional crisis in decades: the US-Israel-Iran confrontation of February-April 2026 that closed the Strait of Hormuz and sent oil prices above 100 dollars per barrel.

India's response to this crisis demonstrated the practical value of the deep UAE and Saudi relationships that have been carefully cultivated over a decade. The ADNOC agreement committing 30 million barrels to India's strategic petroleum reserves, signed during PM Modi's May 2026 UAE visit, provided a physical energy security buffer against exactly the disruption that the Hormuz crisis created. The long-term LPG supply agreement protected India's most household-critical cooking fuel supply against spot market volatility.

India's diplomatic response to the UAE crisis was also significant: PM Modi publicly condemned the Iranian attacks on the UAE by name, a clear security statement that went beyond the usual diplomatic language of calling for restraint from all sides. This statement demonstrated that India's Gulf partnership is not merely transactional but involves genuine security commitments.

The 4.7 million Indians in the UAE, the hundreds of thousands in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, and the approximately 50 billion dollars in annual remittances they send home make the Gulf the most consequential single region for India's economic welfare after the domestic economy itself. Managing the Gulf relationships with the care and strategic depth they deserve is therefore not optional for any Indian government. Modi 3.0 has continued and deepened this engagement with the UAE relationship specifically reaching a level of Comprehensive Strategic Partnership that goes well beyond the transactional.

India's Defence Exports: From Zero to Rs 23,622 Crore

One of the most telling indicators of India's transformed global position is the trajectory of its defence exports. In FY 2013-14, India exported defence equipment worth Rs 686 crore. In FY 2024-25, that figure reached Rs 23,622 crore, a more than 34-fold increase in eleven years.

The private sector contributed Rs 15,233 crore of this total while Defence Public Sector Undertakings accounted for Rs 8,389 crore, a 42.85 percent jump from the previous year. Over 1,700 export authorisations were granted in FY 2024-25. India's defence export portfolio now includes bulletproof jackets, helicopters, torpedoes, patrol boats, radar systems, and a growing range of ammunition and components. The USA, France, and Armenia were among the top buyers in 2023-24.

The target of reaching Rs 50,000 crore in defence exports by 2029 is ambitious but not unrealistic given the current trajectory. The defence industrial roadmap agreed with Italy during the May 2026 Rome visit adds co-development and joint manufacturing dimensions that could produce products available for third-country export by the early 2030s.

India's brief but intense 88-hour military confrontation with Pakistan in May 2025 reinforced the value of specific military capabilities, particularly drone warfare, and accelerated defence cooperation with the United States on autonomous systems and AI-enabled military technology. The confrontation, while not something any responsible government would seek, demonstrated Indian military decisiveness and strengthened the argument for India's defence industrial investments.

India and the Global South: Leading From the Front

India's leadership among emerging economies is not new, but Modi 3.0 has given it institutional depth and programmatic substance that previous declarations of solidarity with the Global South lacked.

The three editions of the Voice of Global South Summit, held in January and November 2023 and August 2024, reflected India's commitment to amplifying developing world voices in global governance institutions. Participation from over 100 countries at each edition spoke to India's credibility as a convener.

In March 2025, PM Modi launched the MAHASAGAR doctrine in Mauritius, establishing India's framework for Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions. The doctrine formalises India's approach to the Indian Ocean region: a combination of development partnership, maritime security cooperation, disaster response capability, and people-to-people connectivity.

India's development partnerships span multiple continents: projects across Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia in education, health, housing, digital infrastructure, and renewable energy. The PM's initiative to include the African Union as a full G20 member during India's G20 presidency in 2023 was one of the most consequential Global South solidarity actions in recent diplomatic history. A permanent African Union voice at the G20 table changes the institution's character and India made it happen.

India's Digital Public Infrastructure export programme is perhaps the most tangible contribution India makes to the Global South. Countries across Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia are adopting UPI-style payment systems, Aadhaar-style digital identity frameworks, and CoWIN-style vaccination management systems. India's DPI experience is becoming a global development model.

Soft Power: The World's Most Visible Cultural Exporter

India's soft power in the first two years of Modi 3.0 has grown through multiple channels simultaneously.

International Yoga Day on June 21, celebrated in over 180 countries, continues to be India's most globally visible cultural initiative. The participation numbers, which in 2025 involved events in more countries simultaneously than any other single cultural observance, reflect India's cultural reach into populations that have no direct political relationship with the Indian government.

The Indian diaspora of approximately 35 million people across 150 countries is the world's largest and most economically successful diaspora. The 4.7 million in the UAE, the 1.5 million in the UK, the over 4 million in the United States, the substantial communities in Canada, Australia, Malaysia, and every other significant economy: this diaspora is India's largest soft power asset because it embodies India's values, capabilities, and culture in every country it inhabits.

Indian cinema, particularly through the global streaming platforms, has achieved a cultural reach that Bollywood's theatrical international audience never captured. RRR won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2023. Indian content on Netflix, Amazon, and Disney Plus reaches global audiences who consume Indian stories, Indian aesthetics, and Indian realities in numbers that were unimaginable a decade ago.

The Melody moment, as Bharat and Beyond covered in our Italy visit blog, is the most recent example of how India's cultural exports now operate at the level of individual viral moments that travel instantly across social media to global audiences. A 50-paisa toffee from Mumbai became an international news story because it embodied Indian warmth and cultural confidence in a way that no government communication campaign could manufacture.

India and International Institutions: Seeking the Seat It Deserves

India's push for reform of global governance institutions has been a consistent theme of the Modi era and continues under Modi 3.0 with renewed urgency.

India's pitch for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, renewed most recently in September 2024 at the UN General Assembly, has gained new support from unexpected quarters. A country that is the world's most populous democracy, the fourth-largest economy, and among the largest contributors to UN peacekeeping is making a case that is increasingly difficult to refute on the merits.

The G20 remains India's most successful multilateral forum. India's presidency in 2023 produced the inclusion of the African Union, the New Delhi Declaration on digital public infrastructure, and the IMEC connectivity corridor announcement. Under India's continued influence within the G20, developing world priorities including debt restructuring, climate finance, and technology access have received more sustained attention than in previous presidencies.

India's advocacy for WTO reform, IMF quota revision, and multilateral development bank governance changes reflects a consistent position: global institutions built in the 1940s and 1950s to reflect the power balance of that era need to be reformed to reflect the multipolar world of the 2020s. India is not alone in this position, but it is the most credible and most consistent advocate for reform among major emerging economies.

The Challenges That Remain

Bharat and Beyond's commitment to honest analysis requires naming the challenges that qualify the achievement narrative.

The India-Pakistan relationship remains frozen, complicated by the May 2025 military confrontation and by the structural reality of Pakistan's security establishment orientation toward sponsoring cross-border terrorism. India's surgical strike capability, demonstrated in 2016, 2019, and 2025, has changed Pakistan's cost-benefit calculation but has not resolved the underlying sources of bilateral tension.

India-China border normalisation remains partial and fragile. The disengagement at friction points achieved through diplomatic and military channels has created a surface-level stability, but the underlying territorial disputes and the deeper strategic competition between Asia's two largest powers have not been resolved. Any future provocation along the Line of Actual Control risks reigniting the tensions that damaged the relationship so severely in 2020.

Global economic headwinds created by the Middle East crisis of 2026, US tariff pressures, and China's economic slowdown affect India's trade environment. The rupee's weakening to 95.2 to the dollar during the Hormuz crisis peak highlighted India's continued vulnerability to external economic shocks despite its improved fundamentals.

India's advocacy for multilateral reform runs into the resistance of incumbent powers who benefit from current institutional arrangements. Permanent UNSC membership, for example, requires amendment of the UN Charter and agreement of all five current permanent members. That agreement is not imminent. The G20's effectiveness as a governance forum depends on the US and China maintaining enough multilateral engagement to make the forum meaningful.

What It Means for Young Indians

The foreign policy achievements of Modi 3.0's first two years are not abstract diplomatic victories. They translate into concrete opportunities for the generation of Indians currently building their careers and their lives.

The EU-India FTA, when implemented, will give Indian engineers, IT professionals, pharmaceutical companies, textile exporters, and agricultural product businesses access to 450 million European consumers at reduced or zero tariff rates. A young engineer from Kerala working for an IT company in Kochi will find it easier to have their company's services sold in Germany or France or Sweden without the current regulatory barriers.

The semiconductor partnerships with the Netherlands, the AI Corridor with Sweden, the supercomputing agreement with UAE's G42: these create a global technology collaboration ecosystem that Indian researchers and technologists can participate in from India rather than having to emigrate to Silicon Valley to access world-class infrastructure and partnership networks.

The defence export trajectory from Rs 686 crore in 2014 to Rs 23,622 crore in 2025 represents tens of thousands of engineering and manufacturing jobs in companies like Tata Advanced Systems, Bharat Forge, L&T Defence, and DRDO-linked private enterprises. The Italy defence industrial roadmap creates co-development pathways that will produce more such jobs in the 2030s.

The MAHASAGAR doctrine and India's Global South partnerships create opportunities for Indian construction companies, technology firms, healthcare providers, and educational institutions in African and Asian markets that are growing faster than most developed economy markets.

The Indian diaspora's success, supported and amplified by India's improved global standing, creates a warm reception for Indian professionals, students, and entrepreneurs in every country where India's relationships are strong. When the UAE, Sweden, Norway, Italy, and the Netherlands sign strategic partnerships with India, their governments signal to their business communities that Indian partnerships are worth pursuing. That signal has practical consequences for how Indian startups are funded, how Indian professionals are hired, and how Indian students are welcomed in those countries.

Has India Emerged as a Major Global Power: The Bharat and Beyond Verdict

Two years of evidence produces one clear answer: yes, India has emerged as one of the world's most courted and most consequential powers during Modi 3.0's first two years. Not the most powerful. Not without challenges or constraints. But genuinely influential in ways that were not true even five years ago.

The evidence is direct and measurable. Forty billion dollars in investment from companies worth three trillion dollars in six days of European diplomacy. Five strategic partnerships elevated in six days. The EU-India FTA called the mother of all deals. India's sovereign credit rating upgraded by S&P after 18 years. Defence exports growing 34-fold in eleven years. A security doctrine for the Indian Ocean. A place at every major table from BRICS to the Quad to the G7 as a guest to the SCO to the G20.

India's global influence is also visible in what countries are coming to India for: the Netherlands for semiconductor fab investments, Sweden for AI research collaboration, Norway for green energy expertise to export, Italy for defence co-development, the UAE for strategic petroleum reserve partnership. When the world's most sophisticated economies come to India seeking specific expertise and partnership in sectors that define the future, it reflects a recognition that India has something to offer beyond its market size.

The Carnegie Endowment observed that India's investment in all geographies had paid off. That is perhaps the most concise and accurate description of what Modi 3.0's first two years of foreign policy have demonstrated. A decade of methodical diplomatic investment, in every region, in every forum, with every major and middle power, has produced a position of global centrality that India has never previously occupied.

The work is not done. The UNSC seat is not won. The China relationship is not resolved. The Pakistan relationship is not normalised. The Indian Ocean is not fully secured. The 2047 vision requires two more decades of sustained diplomatic effort.

But the foundation has been built. The positioning has been established. And the world, increasingly and unmistakably, is sitting up and paying attention.

India is not just growing. It is arriving. And the world knows it.

Stay with Bharat and Beyond for continued analysis of India's foreign policy, global strategy, and the diplomatic architecture being built for India's 2047 future.