NURTURING INDIA'S GENERATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS

The PM's recent meetings with the leaders of UAE & Singapore signal continuity in longstanding associations. A lesson from Nehruvian diplomacy is pertinent for parleys with Austria

- KP NAYAR

HISTORY has thrust itself on India's foreign policy very early in Narendra Modi's third term as prime minister. Modi, who will complete 100 days of his third term on September 17, stands on the threshold of leaving an imprint on current global affairs if he accepts history as a great teacher and follows its lessons.

Seventy-one years and a few weeks ago, Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister, took steps that were very similar to Modi's two months ago. Modi arrived in Vienna from Moscow after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin. Ukraine was very much on the agenda of Modi's meetings in both Moscow and in Vienna. Nehru's mission, when he met Austria's then foreign minister Karl Gruber at the latter's request, was similar: persuade Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to restore Austria's sovereignty.

Adolf Hitler was born in Austria and the country of the führer's birth became a part of his Third Reich in 1938. Austrians paid a heavy price for this. They were occupied by the victorious Allied powers at the end of the Second World War. Like Berlin and the rest of Germany, Vienna and Austria too were carved up by the four Allied victors with their respective zones of ownership. Gruber pleaded with Nehru to end this occupation.

Nehru intervened with the Soviets and Khrushchev accepted the offer of Austria to be "permanently neutral" under its 1955 Constitution. Austria regained its sovereignty and Nehru was invited to Vienna the same year as a gesture of gratitude by the Austrian people for paving the way for their country's new-found independence. Austria remains neutral to this day. It is a member of the European Union, but not of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Western military pact.