NEW DELHI: In 1990, Japanese emperor Akihito was enthroned in a ceremony in Tokyo, where India was represented by the then President of the country.

On May 1 next year, Japanese Crown price Naruhito will be crowned king after Emperor Akihito formally abdicates on April 30. The government is again considering sending the President to the ceremony - an acknowledgement of the strategic partnership that has developed between Japan and India, and is likely to be set as a diplomatic precedent, important in the arcane world of diplomatic protocol.

President Ram Nath Kovind , as he completes his first year in office, has become securely ensconced under the Modi government's foreign policy, with his overseas trips turning into executive visits. He has undertaken 10 presidential visits in his first year, of which seven have been to African countries and six where no Indian president has gone before.

Kovind’s first trip out was to Djibouti, a visit followed up by the government to open its first diplomatic mission this year.

In the coming weeks, Kovind will travel to Central Asia for the first time, particularly to Tajikistan where India is expected to renew the contract to maintain defence presence in an air base. In September, Kovind will travel to Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Cyprus, as India increases its footprint in eastern Europe (currently a key playground for China).

In recent weeks, the government used a presidential visit to Greece to lay out its Europe policy, days after the PM delivered the Indo-Pacific speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue. Government sources said the two speeches had to be seen together to build a more complete picture of India’s current outlook.

With both Seychelles and Mauritius, the government has used the President’s background in Hindi heartland politics to reach out to the political parties there.

Kovind has also aggressively promoted India’s Act East policy, drawing attention repeatedly to the development of India’s northeast.

As a matter of fact, Kovind has overtaken VV Giri by travelling to more countries in his first year, and the government wants Kovind to surpass former President Pranab Mukherjee’s record of visiting 24 countries in five years. This is a key aspect of the Modi government’s overseas outreach — foreign minister Sushma Swaraj announced in her annual press conference that they wanted to visit all 192 countries by the time they complete their five-year term.

Apart from his low-key personality, what works for Kovind is his fluency in English, which makes it easier for the government to use his offices to articulate key foreign policy objectives overseas. That India is an English speaking country has worked well for Indian diplomacy and the Indian service economy equally — it is only dimly acknowledged by this government.

