Greetings and good wishes poured in from all over the world for Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his 75th birthday. What stood out was the widespread respect he commands across the world.It is an endorsement of not only the enhanced stature of the leader but also the enlarged appeal of the nation that he leads — India. There was a brief period after Independence when Jawaharlal Nehru too enjoyed some stature in the world. Nehru was born with a silver spoon, and he inherited Gandhi’s and the freedom movement’s legacy, which catapulted him to a place of respect in the post-Independence years. But that didn’t last long because India faltered, domestically and internationally.AdvertisementUnlike his predecessors, Modi came from a humble background and represented a misunderstood ideological spectrum. When he became the Prime Minister in 2014, many in the Opposition predicted that Modi would be a failure in foreign policy. But what he has achieved is unthinkable. From a meek bystander, India emerged as an important global player under his stewardship. Modi has navigated the country through difficult global challenges, withstood pressures of big powers and followed an independent course by adopting the policy of “strategic autonomy”.Strategic autonomy is not easy in a polarised world. France, under the decade-long presidency of Charles de Gaulle, pursued such a policy in the 1960s. De Gaulle built a fiercely independent foreign policy for his country during the difficult Cold War years when Europe, in general, preferred to be the US’s underling. His refusal to align France’s foreign policy completely with that of the US and his relations with Nikita Khrushchev’s Soviet Union and Mao Zedong’s China were not seen kindly by the US. Both the John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson administrations threatened him with diplomatic isolation, economic costs, and withdrawal of the NATO security umbrella. It was Richard Nixon and his advisor Henry Kissinger who finally understood de Gaulle’s autonomy as not anti-Americanism but an effort to assert his country’s independence and self-reliance.Modi’s maturity in adopting an autonomous foreign policy helped India rise in global geopolitics. The annoyance in some quarters of the US administration is natural. Like the attitude of their counterparts of the 1960s to De Gaulle, the present-day US leadership, too, may seek to browbeat Modi through various machinations. Like de Gaulle, Modi too could be subjected to criticism from within and conspiracies from without. Yet, the fact remains that he has created a new foreign policy doctrine of strategic autonomy that no future government would want to give up.AdvertisementUnknown to many, a two-decade-old story lies behind Modi’s mastering of the global foreign policy framework. His forays into the outside world began in the early 1990s when as a national office-bearer of the BJP, Modi travelled to countries like the UK and the US. He began diaspora engagement in an organised manner during those visits and cultivated relationships with leaders of those countries.As chief minister of Gujarat, Modi visited many countries, including China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Hong Kong, to bring investments into Gujarat. The riots of 2002 created some hurdles, especially in Europe and the US. But that did not deter him. He knew that in his vision of building a Naya Gujarat, he needed the support of the Western powers too, and importantly, the Indian diaspora living in those countries. Ignoring the British government’s disapproval, which at one point included arrest threats, Modi undertook a visit to London in 2003 on the invitation of the diaspora there.As Gujarat grew as a successful economic and trade destination, the Western powers were forced to sit up and take note. The unofficial embargo that EU ambassadors in Delhi sought to impose on their leaders from engaging with Modi developed cracks. I remember the visit of British Labour MP Barry Gardiner to Gandhinagar to attend the Vibrant Gujarat summit in 2005, when he shared the dais with Modi to the chagrin of the then British High Commissioner in Delhi. The trickle soon became a stream.As the 2009 elections neared, there was a buzz that Modi would be nominated as the prime minister candidate of the BJP. It created a stir among several embassies in Delhi. I remember the US deputy ambassador querying about such a possibility in an informal chat in 2008. I didn’t realise that it was such an important issue in Washington, DC until I saw my reply — “it was not the question of whether, but only when” — after it was leaked out in 2011 through the WikiLeaks cables. By then, the world had noticed the rise of a new icon on the horizon of Indian politics.We attempted a luncheon interaction for the EU diplomats with the newly nominated chief of the RSS, Mohan Bhagwat in October 2009. The ambassador of an important member country agreed to host the event on the condition that it should be strictly confidential. Despite the embargo on Modi and the RSS, ambassadors of all the 27 EU member countries except one turned up. The session went on for more than three hours. Several questions were about Modi. Bhagwat’s strong refutation of the insinuations against Modi in the Gujarat riots matter, and his assertion that Modi was a greatly admired leader in the country sent a clear message to the ambassadors.most readIn 2011, when the ambassador of an important EU country visited Modi in Gandhinagar, breaking the so-called embargo, all inhibitions ended. As someone engaged with the diplomatic community in Delhi, I can say that by the time he was sworn in as prime minister in 2014, Modi already generated awe in diplomatic circles globally. The rest is history.When asked why nukes were used in 1945, instead of diplomacy, Einstein famously quipped that “diplomacy is more difficult than science”. Modi has shown that for New India, both diplomacy and military action are equally affordable.The writer, president, India Foundation, is with the BJP. Views are personal