S. Jaishankar

S. Jaishankar is managing India's foreign policy across an unusually broad front. The latest week brought two developments that frame his core challenges. On August 6, India and China held the 36th WMCC border meeting, agreeing to keep using military and diplomatic channels to avoid miscalculation along the Line of Actual Control. Jaishankar's standing position remains that border peace is the prerequisite for normal ties. That followed his July 23 meeting with Chinese FM Wang Yi in Manila, where he formally accused China of illegal occupation of Indian territory in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh since 1963, pressed for fairer market access given a $16.6 billion-exports against $151 billion-trade deficit, while welcoming normalization steps including resumed border trade through three Himalayan passes from August 1.

The more urgent file is West Asia. As the US-Iran conflict expanded into a regional war with strikes on Bandar Abbas, Jaishankar condemned "any such attack by any party" and urged that attacks on commercial shipping and seafarers be avoided under any circumstance. He held a July 31 phone call with Iranian FM Seyed Abbas Araghchi to express deep concern and reiterate support for dialogue and diplomacy. The government told Parliament that 16 Indian nationals including 10 seafarers have been killed in West Asia this year.

With the United States, Jaishankar met Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Manila on July 22 to advance a near-complete interim trade deal he said was ready on paper, with signing expected in three to four months. India's Section 301 tariff rate was held at 10%, but a two-year generic-drug tariff exemption expired August 1, leaving $9.7 billion in pharmaceutical exports exposed to 100-200% tariffs. He is also managing a deportation crisis: over 2,273 Indians have been deported from the US in 2026, and he told Parliament complaints against fraudulent recruitment agents are referred to state police for prosecution.

Jaishankar launched India's UNSC 2028-29 campaign at UN headquarters on July 14 under the SHANTI vision, meeting UN Secretary-General Guterres and securing endorsements from Slovakia and Panama. He defended India's arms trade with Israel against an Amnesty International report tracking 2,596 shipments of military components to Israeli firms, citing that Israel stood by India when its national security was under threat. He met Canadian FM Anita Anand in Manila to expand defense cooperation, co-chaired the inaugural India-Belgium Strategic Dialogue in Brussels, and completed a six-nation Gulf tour focused on Strait of Hormuz maritime security and diaspora welfare.