Rising Powers Respond to Modi’s Landslide Victory

Policy Alert #189 | May 29, 2019

The 2019 Indian elections concluded last week with a landslide victory for incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP). The BJP secured a majority in the lower house with 302 seats. Modi joins Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in achieving a fresh mandate to craft his country’s foreign policy for the foreseeable future. In this RPI Policy Alert, we survey the Rising Powers’ response to the outcome of the Indian elections.

 

INDIA

In his victory speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his intent to strengthen India: “For the next five years, every Indian will have to pledge to transform India into a strong nation. The mission will require the same spirit as the one witnessed during the freedom struggle. We can make India a strong nation by 2022, before we completed 75 years of Independence.”

 

CHINA

Chinese President Xi Jinping offered a message of congratulations to Prime Minister Modi: “Thanks to the joint efforts of the two sides, China-India relations are gaining strong momentum in recent years, and the two countries maintain sound coordination and cooperation on such major issues as promoting world multipolarization and economic globalization, and safeguarding multilateralism. I attach great importance to the development of China-India relations, and stand ready to work with you to ensure bilateral relations advance in the right direction, enhance political mutual trust, expand practical cooperation, and continuously uplift the closer development partnership between the two countries.”

 

RUSSIA

According to the Kremlin’s press service, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with Modi over the telephone to offer his congratulations, and the two leaders “confirmed their readiness to fully contribute to the strengthening of friendship between the people of Russia and the people of India and the development of privileged strategic partnership, as well as to continue closely coordinating their activities on the international stage.”

  • In an interview with state-owned TASS, Alexei Kupriyanov of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of World Economy and International Relations offered his analysis of what’s to come in India-Russia relations.
  • Government-funded RT featured an op-ed by Brahma Chellaney, professor of strategic studies at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi, that provides an overview of his expectations for Modi’s second-term foreign policy with an eye for how India is navigating its ties between China, Russia, and the US.

 

JAPAN

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe offered a congratulatory message to Modi and “stated that he would like to closely work with Prime Minister Modi hand in hand toward strengthening Japan-India relations and realizing a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

RPI acknowledges support from the MacArthur Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York for its activities.