New Delhi, October 14 — As over 20 world leaders convened in Egypt’s Sharm El-Sheikh for the Gaza Peace Summit on Monday, India was represented by Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh, who held discussions with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on the sidelines of the global meeting.
“It was a privilege to meet President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi of Egypt during the Gaza Peace Summit in Sharm El-Sheikh. Egypt and India share a vibrant strategic partnership,” Singh said in a post on X after the meeting. “The summit underscored the global commitment to peace and dialogue. India reaffirms its unwavering dedication to peace, stability, and enduring security within the Middle East.”
The summit, co-chaired by U.S. President Donald Trump and President El-Sisi, brought together top global leaders including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The agenda focused on consolidating the Gaza ceasefire, coordinating humanitarian assistance, and framing long-term measures for regional stability.
Although Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been invited to the high-level assembly, he did not attend. The government offered no official explanation for his absence, though diplomatic observers suggested New Delhi may have chosen to avoid sharing a platform with the Pakistani premier.
The Congress party criticised the government’s decision to send a junior minister to what it called “a defining moment in West Asian diplomacy.” Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who once served as Minister of State for External Affairs and now chairs the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, questioned the optics of India’s limited representation.
“India’s presence at the Sharm El-Sheikh summit, at the level of a Minister of State, stands in stark contrast to the heads of state gathered there. Strategic restraint or missed opportunity?” Tharoor wrote on X.
Clarifying that his remarks were not aimed personally at Singh, Tharoor said India’s choice of representation might dilute its influence in crucial discussions. “Given the galaxy of grandees present, India’s choice could be seen as signalling a preference for strategic distance, which our statements don’t convey. For reasons of protocol access alone, our voice on reconstruction and regional stability may carry less weight than it could have. In a region reshaping itself, our relative absence is puzzling,” he noted.
Diplomatic analysts said India’s lower-level representation may reflect a cautious approach amid shifting alignments in the Middle East, where regional rivalries and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continue to dominate international attention.
While Singh’s participation reaffirmed India’s support for peace and dialogue, the government’s decision not to send a higher-level representative has sparked debate over whether New Delhi may have missed a key moment to assert itself on the global stage.
