21/02/2023
On the 6th of February 2023, the Middle Eastern nations of Türkiye and Syria were hit by a series of earthquakes, the southern province of Gaziantep, Turkey was identified as the epicenter of the earthquake which shook the Northern and Western parts of Syria as well. Upon hearing this news, the world fell into a spiral of silence and condolence messages while many nations offered to help with the search and rescue effort.
Upon hearing the news of the earthquake, the Indian Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Damodar Das Modi expressed his grief and solidarity with the Middle Eastern nation and sent a team to help in the search and rescue operations. India sent around ₹ 7 Crore worth of relief material which consists of many pharmaceutical equipment, field hospitals, and 7 Indian Airforce C-17s which made multiple trips across the globe to deliver relief materials.
On the Syrian front of the disaster, it has been a rather sensitive issue for the Indian Govt. and NDRF to send in the relief material as the Bashar-Al-Assad regime is facing silent treatment from the western nations over the ongoing Civil War, but regardless of the opinions of the west and following its motto for the G20 Presidency ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ India sent a team of Indian Army doctors and some drones to help Syria in its rescue effort.
This has been one of the many times that we have seen Indian Disaster Diplomacy in action, to summarize it for the general people one can say that helping a country during times of crisis is an excellent way of developing friendly relations and helps in establishing oneself as a soft power in the region or the country.
India does not miss the golden opportunity to do so by offering help to even its regional rival Pakistan, with whom they have sour relation with since their partition way back in 1947, during the nightmare floods that took place in October 2022. India doesn’t seem to miss such opportunities even a bit as the bureaucracy in India understands its impact on the disaster-struck countries and how it elevates the nation’s image in the international media, establishing India as a reliable entity for governments to look at.
When looking up its origin one can trace the existence of this diplomatic system way back to the creation of India as a Republic and started pursuing foreign relations in the way the nation pleases but during recent years the application of Disaster Diplomacy has been pretty evident be it the 2015 Nepal Earthquakes where Operation Maitri was launched by the Indian Armed Forces to help their Himalayan neighbor or Mission Rahat launched in 2015 to evacuate citizens from more than 41 countries from the war struck nation of Yemen.
Disaster Diplomacy has proved to be a vital tool for the Indian Government as it has put them in a really convenient position making them able to establish relations easily and form various alliances and ties with multiple countries at the same time which displays India’s willingness to leave its footprint on the world and to lead the new Global Order in a new way under the slogan of ‘अयं निजः परो वेति गणना लघुचेतसाम् | उदारचरितानां तु वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम् ||’
