How PM Modi’s West Asia-Africa visit means big for Global South

New Delhi’s diplomatic instinct has always prized strategic patience over headline hunting. But the four-day visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Jordan, Ethiopia and Oman from December 15 to 18 felt different, not because of pageantry, but because it crystallised a clear directional shift in India’s foreign policy. From transactional to transformational partnerships in the extended neighbourhood of West Asia and Africa.

In a fractured world beset by supply-chain disruptions, geopolitical rivalries and waning trust in narrow power blocs, this tour wasn’t a sequence of photo ops. It was a strategic reset designed to expand India’s diplomatic horizons and deepen its role in a more multipolar world.

PM Modi’s first stop was Amman in Jordan, where history met future potential. He was welcomed at the invitation of King Abdullah II in a visit that also celebrated 75 years of diplomatic relations between India and Jordan. The symbolism was rich.

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Jordan may be considered small in economic heft, but it has long been a gateway to the Levant, a centre of historical cross-currents between Asia, Africa and Europe. Here, Modi and the Jordanian leadership signed multiple agreements, spanning renewable energy, water management, digital co-operation and cultural exchange. Sectors that matter, not just economically but for future resilience.

What stands out is the ambition of these partnerships. They aren’t limited to old paradigms of energy or aid. They reflect shared priorities of innovation, sustainability and people-to-people linkages. Themes that resonate with voters and policymakers equally.

What stood out also was the vibrant role played by the Indian diaspora in Amman, underscoring soft power as a pillar of modern diplomacy where culture and connectivity amplify strategic trust.

If Jordan represented continuity, Ethiopia was about a new chapter of cooperation.

For the first time, a sitting Indian prime minister visited Addis Ababa, and Modi’s address to the Ethiopian Parliament was more than simply ceremonial. It was a symbolic handshake between two democracies that see the 21st century through convergent lenses of development and multipolarity.

The relationship was elevated to a strategic partnership, and several MoUs were signed on UN peacekeeping, training, customs cooperation, digital infrastructure and health and education cooperation. The visit also witnessed Modi being conferred the nation’s highest civilian award, a sign of respect and shared purpose.

The importance of Ethiopia goes beyond bilateral ties. Addis Ababa is the seat of the African Union, making it a diplomatic nerve centre for the continent. By securing new frameworks for cooperation here, India’s political reach extends into narratives of South-South cooperation, technology transfer and institutional partnership at a continental level.

Crucially this was not India’s pivot away from old partners but a calculated diversification. Enhancing ties with a rising African economy while affirming shared values of sovereignty and development cooperation, especially at a time when Ethiopia seeks alternatives in a world unsettled by shifting US and European alignments.

The tour’s final leg was Muscat, where Modi and Sultan Haitham bin Tarik signalled ambition beyond diplomacy, into economic architecture. India and Oman have agreed to expand bilateral cooperation in trade, investment, infrastructure and energy, anchored by a Joint Vision Document and multiple agreed MoUs. A free trade agreement between the two countries is also on track, following its formal approval by the Indian Cabinet just days before the visit.

Why is this so significant? It is because Oman sits astride the Straits of Hormuz and the Arabian Sea, a maritime fulcrum between the Gulf and the Indian Ocean. Strengthening economic and strategic cooperation here serves dual purposes. Firstly, enhancing India’s commercial access into West Asia, and secondly, securing sea lanes crucial for energy and trade.

Then of course, there is the question of shifting post-pandemic geopolitics. There is no monolithic “bloc” rising in the way Cold War binaries once did. But the era ushered in by the pandemic has accelerated patchwork alliances and pragmatic coalitions. Diplomatic networks that are flexible, multi-layered and purpose-driven.

PM Modi’s three-nation tour is emblematic of this new order. Instead of choosing sides, New Delhi is sculpting a latticework of significant partnerships tailored to mutual interests such as economic resilience, digital infrastructure, climate adaptation and developmental cooperation.

This approach reflects India’s broader foreign policy evolution, from selectively reactive to proactively generative. It’s a geography-plus-geopolitics strategy, integrating traditional West Asia, emergent Africa and the Indo-Pacific into a cohesive diplomatic architecture that focuses on mutual agency rather than patronage.

For India the dividends of the PM's West Asia-Africa trip are manifold. Economic expansion, of course, with the enhanced trade agreements, new market access for exporters and strategic positioning in logistics and technology corridors. Then there is soft power traction, which of course includes our diaspora engagement and cultural diplomacy that reinforces India’s image as a partner that listens as much as it talks. And of course, elevating relationships to strategic partnerships and exploring comprehensive economic pacts that position India firmly as a credible node in emerging multipolar networks.

For the global order, India’s manoeuvres underscore a persistent truth. 21st-century diplomacy will be neither unipolar nor bipolar but matrixed. Nations will bind together around issues and interests, not necessarily ideologies. India is anchoring its foreign policy in long-term partnerships that reflect the realities of a world where economic interdependence, technological cooperation and regional connectivity matter as much as military calculus.

(The author is a freelance journalist and features writer based out of Delhi. Her main areas of focus are politics, social issues, climate change and lifestyle-related topics. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.)