India 2018

India and the World 317
to countries reeling from natural calamities. India continued to impart greater
energy and pragmatism to the Act East policy based on building security ties,
connectivity and stronger economic integration. We strengthened our linkages
with countries in the Gulf, West and Central Asian to not only advance energy
ties, but also to seek wider economic cooperation and to leverage relations to
promote security objectives.
Government continued to lay emphasis on making India's domestic
transformation a central element of its foreign policy engagement. Attracting
investments, technologies and best practices from abroad remained important
priorities in all our diplomatic engagements. The year saw fast-tracking of
international partnerships aimed at promoting and facilitating all of India's
flagship development initiatives such as "Make in India", "Smart Cities", "Skill
India", "Digital India" and "Namami Gange". Even as India sought stronger
economic cooperation with developed countries, it remained committed to using
its growing capabilities so as to extend development support to its developing
partners countries across the world. This was reflected in our extending
concessional credit lines, grant assistance as well as expanding technical and
economic cooperation to developing countries in our neighbourhood, in South-
East Asia, Central Asia, Africa and Latin America.
The International Day of Yoga was celebrated for the third year running
and witnessed even greater participation and coverage. The Indian Council for
Cultural Relations (ICCR) organized a number of events across the world to
showcase India's rich heritage, including festivals of Indian culture in France
and Australia. Apart from organizing the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas on 7-9 January
2017, the Ministry continued to take innovative steps for connecting and reaching
out to the Diaspora abroad. To commemorate the achievements of the Indian
Diaspora, a Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra (PBK) has been set-up in Delhi. The
tradition of engagement with the Indian Diaspora during high level visits abroad
also continued during the year.
Neighbourhood
Afghanistan: An active momentum of high level exchanges was maintained
between India and Afghanistan through highly successful visits by the Prime
Minister to Herat in June 2016 and by Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf
Ghani to New Delhi and Amritsar in September and December 2016, and to
Delhi in October 2017. Also noteworthy was the announcement by Prime
Minister, in September 2016, of the additional amount of US Dollars One billion
towards development assistance in capacity and capability building for
Afghanistan. Main highlights of the engagement included the joint co-hosting
by India and Afghanistan of the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the Heart of
Asia Istanbul Process in Amritsar in December 2016 and India's active
participation at the multilateral fora on Afghanistan including the Brussels
conference in October 2016. Considerable progress was also made in cooperation
in spheres like skill development, security, health, water management, education
and connectivity.