Modi's three-nation tour: Trade, trust and the architecture of India's economic diplomacy

Modi's three-nation tour advances trade partnerships, strategic trust, and outcome-driven economic diplomacy.

- PRADEEP BHANDARI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent three-nation visit to Jordan, Ethiopia and Oman represents a clear sharpening of India's economic diplomacy at a moment when global trade is under strain, protectionist tendencies are reemerging and supply chains are being reworked across continents.

The tour was not a routine diplomatic exercise; it was a strategically structured engagement aimed at widening India's trade reach, securing durable market access and improving the global competitiveness of Indian industry across West Asia and Africa.

What emerges most clearly from the visit is a shift in India's external posture. Partnerships are no longer built around symbolism or rhetoric. Instead, they are being anchored in tangible economic deliverables, institutional arrangements and long-term commercial access. This approach was matched by an exceptional diplomatic endorsement: Jordan, Ethiopia and Oman each conferred their highest civilian honours on Prime Minister Modi, an unusual convergence that reflects the depth of political trust India now commands in these regions.

The most substantive economic outcome of the tour was the India-Oman Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, a free trade pact that fundamentally alters India's trade equation with the Gulf. The agreement eliminates duties on nearly all of Oman's tariff lines and provides preferential access to virtually the entirety of India's exports to the country, with most concessions taking effect immediately. For Indian exporters, particularly in textiles, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, engineering goods, automobiles and other labour-intensive sectors, this delivers instant cost competitiveness and long-term certainty.