As global crises converge—pandemics, climate change, conflict, and economic instability—health has emerged as a defining foreign policy concern. Global health diplomacy, a once-niche area of international engagement, is now a theatre of power, equity, and influence. India, with its legacy of pharmaceutical leadership, digital innovation, and multilateral activism, has a rare opportunity to set the agenda for the world’s health governance. But real leadership will require more than soft-power posturing. It will demand a hard-headed strategy of institutional investment, regional leadership, and global coalition-building.
At its core, global health diplomacy is about shaping the global health architecture through coordinated negotiations and partnerships—across governments, multilateral forums, trade pacts, and civil society. For India, the choice is clear: evolve into a thematic leader that defends equity in access, represents the Global South, and embeds health in every lever of international diplomacy.
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From WHA to WTO: Assertive multilateralism
India must deepen its engagement with multilateral institutions such as the World Health Organisation (WHO), World Trade Organisation (WTO), and regional UN bodies. Participation at the World Health Assembly (WHA) cannot be ritualistic—it must be substantive. India must take leadership roles in drafting resolutions, shaping global health treaties, and coordinating South-South cooperation on non-communicable diseases, antimicrobial resistance, and health data governance.
A long-term vision should include positioning an Indian public health leader as a future WHO Director-General. This would symbolically and functionally shift the axis of global health policymaking toward emerging economies. Simultaneously, India must assert itself in WTO negotiations to safeguard flexibilities under TRIPS for essential medicines. This includes sustained monitoring of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the WTO’s TRIPS Council, especially as new technologies like mRNA vaccines and AI-based diagnostics become part of the IPR battleground.
Regional leadership and the FTA frontier
India’s neighbourhood—South Asia and the Indo-Pacific—is a hotbed of both opportunity and vulnerability in public health. The G20 presidency has offered a glimpse into how India can align health priorities with geopolitical forums. Yet, India must go beyond the ceremonial and push for institutionalised platforms for health emergency coordination within BIMSTEC, SAARC, and BRICS.
Health provisions in Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) must evolve beyond mere side-clauses. India should lead the call for integrating health impact assessments into all FTAs. Provisions ensuring access to generic medicines, harmonisation of health standards, and pandemic response mechanisms must be central to trade negotiations, particularly as FTAs with the EU, UK, and Africa are negotiated.
Moreover, India’s robust generic pharmaceutical industry must be positioned as a global public good. Champions of affordable essential drugs are needed more than ever, and India has both the moral and economic clout to lead that campaign. Expanding initiatives like Vaccine Maitri into broader essential medicines diplomacy—especially across the Global South—would give India a sustained edge.
From workforce to AI: Building new foundations
India’s health diplomacy must rest on institutional depth. A National Programme on Global Health Diplomacy, integrated into foreign service and health ministry training, is overdue. A dedicated GHD syllabus—covering trade law, global governance, health financing, and pandemic preparedness—should become part of IFS and public health curricula. India must groom a cadre of Global Health Diplomats, who can speak the languages of both trade negotiations and humanitarian ethics.
Equally crucial is India’s edge in digital health. With platforms like CoWIN and the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM), India has shown the world what scaled health tech can look like. These must now be globalised. Sharing India’s digital public goods with African, ASEAN, and Latin American countries, particularly through bilateral and multilateral agreements, would embed India at the heart of digital health governance. AI-based health diagnostics, wearable surveillance tools, and blockchain health records are all emerging areas where India can lead by designing the regulatory principles and technical protocols.
Climate-health diplomacy must also rise to the fore. The health impacts of extreme heat, flooding, and air pollution disproportionately affect the Global South. India can push for a “Health Track” under the UNFCCC, building coalitions with vulnerable countries to ensure that climate funding also includes health system strengthening and emergency preparedness.
Embedding health in foreign policy
To sustain momentum, India needs robust institutional mechanisms. An annual Global Health Diplomacy Progress Report, tabled in Parliament, can track India’s performance on its multilateral, regional, and trade-based health engagements. The Parliamentary Committee on External Affairs should be empowered to scrutinise India’s GHD strategy and recommend course corrections.
Further, India must embed health priorities into its broader development partnerships. This includes integrating health infrastructure investments within the Lines of Credit extended to African and South Asian countries, offering medical education scholarships, and supporting telemedicine centres in underserved regions through India’s Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme.
India should also seek thematic leadership in the UN General Assembly on topics like digital health equity, mental health, and women’s health access. Monitoring the health-related agenda of UN agencies like UNICEF, UNDP, UN Women, and WFP will ensure alignment with India’s own diplomatic priorities.
Global leadership through health diplomacy
India is not merely a participant in the global health arena—it is increasingly a prototype for what inclusive, affordable, and innovation-driven health systems look like. But to convert this comparative advantage into real strategic influence, India must institutionalise, invest, and internationalise its health diplomacy efforts.
By embedding health into trade, foreign policy, and climate strategy, India can emerge not just as a regional power but as a global health leader. The time is ripe for India to propose a standing Global Health Security Council at the UN, to advocate for global stockpiles of essential drugs, and to lead a South-South alliance for vaccine equity.
India’s ascent in global health diplomacy is not guaranteed—it must be earned through sustained engagement, strategic clarity, and moral leadership. If successful, India will not only shape global health outcomes—it will rewrite the rules of global health governance for the next generation.