COVID-19 Pandemic and India’s Regional Soft Power Diplomacy

Abstract

Today soft power is increasingly being recognised as an important foreign policy instrument. Over the years India has also been trying to project its soft power to improve its image among the comity of nations. India’s recent help to the regional neighbours during the COVID-19 pandemic confirms and reinforces this trend towards soft power diplomacy. Such a gesture of India has been widely applauded and has helped to generate goodwill for India within the neighbours. The paper intends to explore the conceptual framework of soft power diplomacy focusing mainly on the recent interventions of India’s neighbourhood policy and soft power diplomacy in the period ensuing the pandemic.