♦ President Droupadi Murmu held delegation-level talks with her Botswana counterpart, President Duma Boko, at the President’s Office in Gaborone on 12 November 2025.
♦ On this occation, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in health and pharmaceuticals between India and Botswana, aimed at bolstering bilateral collaboration in the healthcare sector.
♦ Botswana will also gift India eight cheetahs under the Project Cheetah initiative.
Posted Date: November 12, 2025Meetings
♦ Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed six new initiatives aimed at global development on the opening day of the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.
♦ These include the setting up of a Global Traditional Knowledge Repository, Africa Skills Multiplier program, Global Healthcare Response Team, initiative on Countering the drug-terror Nexus, Open Satellite Data Partnership, and a Critical Minerals Circularity initiative.
♦ The Africa Skills Multiplier program will aim to establish a pool of one million certified trainers for skilling the youth in Africa.
♦ Modi also proposed setting up a G20 Global Healthcare Response Team, which will comprise healthcare experts from each of the G20 countries and could be deployed to deal with global health challenges in any part of the world.
♦ He also suggested a G20 Initiative on Countering the Drug-Terror Nexus to overcome the challenge of drug trafficking and break the drug-terror economy.
♦ The Prime Minister also noted India’s global leadership in promoting Shree Anna or millets, which are both climate-resilient and nutritious.
♦ Prime Minister Modi also appreciated the work done by the G20 group under the South African Presidency in the areas of skilled migration, tourism, food security, AI, digital economy, innovation and women’s empowerment.
Posted Date: November 23, 2025♦ India and Israel have formally signed the Terms of Reference (ToR) to initiate negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA), marking a major step toward deepening bilateral economic cooperation. The ToR was signed in Tel Aviv by India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal and Israel’s Minister of Economy and Industry Nir Barkat. The signing sets the framework that will guide structured negotiations between the two nations.
♦ The launch of FTA talks is expected to boost cooperation across technology, innovation, trade, and investment, further deepening the strategic partnership between India and Israel.
Posted Date: November 22, 2025♦ Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated in the G20 Leaders’ Summit hosted by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in Johannesburg on 22 November 2025, marking his 12th appearance at a G20 Summit. Speaking at the session on “Inclusive and sustainable economic growth leaving no one behind”, he lauded the South African presidency for advancing work on skilled migration, tourism, food security, artificial intelligence, the digital economy, innovation and women empowerment, while also noting that several historic decisions from the New Delhi Summit were being carried forward.
♦ Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a series of interactions with several world leaders on the sidelines of the G20 Summit.
♦ Prime Minister Modi also announced the launch of a new trilateral initiative — the Australia-Canada-India Technology and Innovation (ACITI) Partnership — along with Australian and Canadian counterparts Anthony Albanese and Mark Carney.
Posted Date: November 22, 2025♦ India and Russia held high-level interagency consultations on maritime cooperation in New Delhi on 17 November 2025. The meeting was jointly chaired by Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal and Nikolai Patrushev, Aide to the President of the Russian Federation and Chairman of the Maritime Board of Russia.
♦ The consultations reviewed the full spectrum of maritime initiatives between India and Russia. The two sides reaffirmed the Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership between the nations, describing it as deep, enduring and rooted in mutual trust, respect and a shared vision for long-term economic and strategic cooperation.
♦ During the talks, both sides discussed opportunities for collaboration in shipbuilding, maritime trade and logistics, port infrastructure, and scientific and technical exchanges. Cooperation in Arctic operations, maritime research and capacity building also came up for detailed discussion.
Posted Date: November 17, 2025♦ India will host a Global Big Cats Summit in New Delhi in 2026, Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav said on 17 November 2025. Speaking at the High-Level Ministerial Segment on the International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA) at the UN climate conference CoP30 in Belem, Brazil, he urged renewed global cooperation to protect big cat species and their habitats as part of broader climate and biodiversity action.
♦ The Minister thanked Brazil for hosting the event and highlighted the timeliness of the theme, ‘Protecting Big Cats, Protecting Climate and Biodiversity.’
♦ Yadav stressed that big cat landscapes must be treated as nature-based climate solutions and urged countries to place such measures at the heart of future climate commitments.
♦ Yadav said the IBCA, a vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi rooted in the principle of ‘One Earth, One World, One Future,’ now has 17 member countries, with more than 30 others expressing interest.
Posted Date: November 17, 2025♦ The 3rd International Ayurveda Conference, jointly organised by the Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre (SVCC) and Conayur in São Paulo, concluded on 16 November 2025. The two days of discussions focused on strengthening India-Brazil cooperation in traditional medicine. The event, held under the aegis of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), also marked four decades of Ayurveda’s presence in Brazil.
♦ The conference, themed “Diversity and Inclusion in Ayurveda: Caring for Everybody and Every Being,” brought together experts, practitioners, academics and students from across Latin America and India.
Posted Date: November 16, 2025♦ Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Bhutan’s Fourth King, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, in Thimphu on 12 November 2025.
♦ They jointly inaugurated the Kalachakra Empowerment ceremony, marking a key moment in the deep spiritual and cultural ties between the two neighbouring countries.
♦ The Kalachakra, one of the most revered and intricate rituals in Tibetan Buddhism, is being observed as a three-day empowerment ceremony aimed at conferring blessings and authorisations for advanced meditative practices leading toward enlightenment.
Posted Date: November 12, 2025♦ Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh co-chaired the 15th India-Vietnam Defence Policy Dialogue in Hanoi with Vietnam Deputy Minister of National Defence Sr Lt Gen Hoang Xuan Chien on 10 November 2025.
♦ They signed a Memorandum of Agreement on Mutual Submarine Search and Rescue Support and Cooperation, and also a Letter of Intent on strengthening Defence Industry collaboration.
♦ Ministry of Defence said in a social media post that the discussions reaffirmed that the Defence Partnership remains a key pillar of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between India and Vietnam.
Posted Date: November 10, 2025♦ The 9th India-Chile Foreign Office Consultations meeting was held in Santiago, Chile on 10 November 2025.
♦ It was co-chaired by Secretary (East) in Ministry of External Affairs P. Kumaran and Secretary General of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile Ambassador Rodrigo Olsen.
♦ Both sides agreed to further strengthen cooperation in key areas, including trade, investment, connectivity, health & pharmaceuticals, traditional medicines, science and technology, mining & mineral exploration, defence, civil nuclear technologies, education, space, agriculture and people to people exchanges.
♦ India requested Chile to consider long term agreements for the supply of mineral resources.
Posted Date: November 10, 2025♦ India and Saudi Arabia signed the bilateral Haj Agreement for 2026, confirming a quota of 175,025 Indian pilgrims for the annual pilgrimage on 9 November 2025.
♦ The agreement was inked following Rijiju’s bilateral meeting with Dr. Tawfiq bin Fawzan Al-Rabiah, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Hajj and Umrah, in Jeddah. Both sides reviewed ongoing preparations for Haj 2026 and discussed ways to further improve coordination, logistics, and facilities for Indian pilgrims.
Posted Date: November 9, 2025♦ Union Minister of State for External Affairs Pabitra Margherita met Gabriela Sommerfeld, Ecuador’s Minister of Foreign and Human Mobility Affairs, during his official visit to the Latin American country on 6 November 2025.
♦ During the meeting the two leaders signed a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) on cooperation between the diplomatic training institutions of India and Ecuador.
♦ Both sides explored opportunities to deepen cooperation in political, trade, pharmaceuticals, training and capacity building, as well as other areas of shared interest.
Posted Date: November 6, 2025♦ The 17th meeting of the Joint Working Group (JWG) on defence cooperation between India and Israel was held in Tel Aviv on 4 November 2025.
♦ The meeting was co-chaired by Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh and Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Defence Major General Amir Baram.
♦ During the meeting, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed to expand the scope of bilateral defence ties between the two nations.
♦ The agreement will provide a unified vision and policy direction to deepen the already strong defence cooperation between the two countries.
♦ This will enable the sharing of advanced tech and promote co-development and co-production.
Posted Date: November 4, 2025