Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was originally scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly’s historic 80th anniversary session this year, but when the moment came, it was Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar who spoke for India. Jaishankar leaned on themes of self-reliance, self-protection, and self-confidence — each phrased in Sanskrit — and deliberately used “Bharat” rather than “India,” a nod to Hindu nationalist ideology.
No official explanation was given for Modi’s absence, but diplomatic signals suggest it was tied to a shifting balance in South Asia. U.S. President Donald Trump, who has long provided Modi with a platform during past UN visits, openly shifted his preference toward Pakistan in recent months. With Pakistan’s prime minister and army chief appearing side by side with Trump in photo ops, the optics of a Modi-Trump meeting would have been awkward at best, humiliating at worst.
Modi had sought to counterbalance this pressure by cultivating ties with China and Russia. At the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin, he met Chinese President Xi Jinping warmly, praising the resumption of border peace, the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, and direct flights. He cast their cooperation as serving not only India and China’s 2.8 billion people but “the welfare of all humanity.” His speech even welcomed connectivity initiatives — with a caveat that they respect sovereignty and territorial integrity, a veiled critique of the Karakoram Highway and Pakistan’s 1962 ceding of Shaksgam Valley to China.
He struck a similar note with Russian President Vladimir Putin, stressing India and Russia’s historic solidarity and the importance of their cooperation for global stability. He also pointedly mentioned India’s ongoing engagement with Iran’s Chabahar Port, despite U.S. objections.
But the irony was unavoidable. The very countries Modi was wooing — the U.S., China, and Russia — are all simultaneously strengthening ties with Pakistan. For Modi, staying away from the UN this year may have been less about scheduling, and more about avoiding the symbolism of India’s strained hand in a high-stakes game of geopolitical chess.