Beyond the Ribbon: Decoding the Surge of Foreign Honors for India’s Leadership
In recent news, the Indian PM was conferred with the highest state honor by Uzbekistan - the Order of "Oliy Darajali Dustlik" (Order of Friendship of the Highest Degree). There are close to 30 such state honors received by the current Indian PM. I had been wondering about why any nation would confer such honors to foreign individuals. I had to do some digging (very easy these days, isn't it?) So, these state honors, when conferred on foreign heads of state, can serve multiple purposes: Announcing, confirming, or institutionalizing bilateral ties Geopolitical Economic or cultural leverage And last, but not least, Soft Power Projection. Some key advantages for India-Uzbekistan are around nuclear energy, Trade, defense, and also cultural and geopolitical. To see how this pans out, we will have to wait for a while, though. If you have noticed (and I am sure most of us have), there's a significant uptick in the Indian PM receiving such state honors since Mr. Modi has c...