India’s External Affairs Ministry (MEA) has drawn up a tour itinerary for ministers, allotting them specific countries to visit by the end of this year.

In a letter to different ministries, it said: “By 2016-end, we will not leave any country where Indian ministers have not gone.”

The measure aims at reaching out to every country, including 68 with who ties at a ministerial level are yet to open.



This measure is in line with the prime minister’s statement made to the NITI Aayog recently, wherein he said that he is not looking for incremental change but rapid transformation in India. In this rapid transformation, India could do with all the help—including that in ideas and investment—that it can get.

For example, one of the success stories in the Baltic region has been the former Soviet republic of Estonia and that is exactly where,Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will head to. Home Minister Rajnath Singh would visit Hungary, and Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu, Bosnia.

Indian diplomats have engaged with 101 countries until last year, and by June this year, it had established contacts with more than 140.