The government’s spending on the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) this year has registered a rise: the budget for 2025-26 sets aside Rs 20,516 crore, which is an increase of over 15% as compared to last year’s budget.
The ministry has added ten new missions and posts last year, most of them in Africa, for which provision had been made in the budget. The ministry said it was stepping up the technology upgradation process of passport services as part of its citizen-centric initiatives.
An MEA readout said, “No allocation has been made towards EXIM Bank provisioning in the budget yet… this is a dynamic process and may be done at a later phase if the need arises.”
Neighbourhood First
The allocation for the Overseas Development Partnership is Rs 6750 crore, comprising 33% of the overall budget. This is an increase of about 20% (Rs. 1082 crore) over last year’s allocation of Rs. 5667.56 crore and is in alignment with foreign policy objectives and expansive development partnership footprint.
Guided by the ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy, 64% of the scheme’s portfolio (Rs. 4320 crore) is earmarked for our immediate neighbours towards implementation of a variety of demand-driven initiatives ranging from large infrastructure projects such as hydroelectric plants, power transmission lines, housing, roads, bridges, integrated check-posts, to small-scale grass-roots level community development projects as well as training and capacity building programmes.
The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan continues to remain the single largest recipient of India’s aid – Rs 2,150 crores, which is 39% of the entire aid budget. This is a small decrease from last year’s Rs 2,543 crores. The focus is on renewable energy and energy security projects.
The allocation for Bangladesh remains unchanged at Rs 120 crores. Other steady budget allocations include Rs 700 crore to Nepal and Rs 300 crore to Sri Lanka.
Aid to Afghanistan has gone up from Rs 50 crore in 2024-2025 to Rs 100 crore in the current budget. India continues to tread slowly with the Taliban government with no word on official recognition, which is what much of the world is doing.
Aid to the Maldives has gone up to Rs 600 crores, a jump from the Rs 470 crore budget allocation last year. India has promised the Maldives more help on infrastructure development and digital connectivity. India has also allocated a sizeable chunk of its aid distribution to African, Eurasian, Latin American and other developing countries.
