A season of consequential diplomacy appears to be on hand as signals emerge from several directions at once. The unannounced visit of CIA Director John Ratcliffe to Moscow, where he held talks with Russian intelligence officials is perhaps the brightest flare. The Kremlin confirmed the meetings while noting that Ratcliffe did not meet President Vladimir Putin. That distinction may be less important than the visit itself. At a time when US-Russia relations remain deeply strained, the fact that the CIA chief travelled to Moscow is significant. As the Kremlin noted, intelligence channels often remain open even during the darkest phases of diplomacy.
India, meanwhile, is moving on multiple diplomatic tracks. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s visit to Moscow included a meeting with Putin and the delivery of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal message. More significantly, Jaishankar said Modi looks forward to meeting Putin at the forthcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kyrgyzstan this month-end and to welcoming him to India for the BRICS summit soon after.
Then there is the China channel. National Security Adviser Ajit Doval’s talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi focused on border issues and the broader bilateral relationship. Beijing described the discussions as comprehensive, candid and friendly, while both sides announced steps to manage the border more effectively as they work towards a political solution.
Coming ahead of a likely visit by President Xi Jinping—and amid continuing efforts to stabilise India-China relations after years of border tensions—the timing is difficult to ignore. Taken together, these developments suggest that the diplomatic calendar is indeed becoming consequential.
The forthcoming SCO and BRICS summits offer platforms where countries that may disagree sharply on major geopolitical questions can still meet, talk, test possibilities and build consensus. In a fragmented international system, simply keeping these channels open matters.
For India, this is a particularly important. New Delhi has consistently pursued strategic autonomy maintaining strong ties with Washington and Moscow while simultaneously managing a difficult but important relationship with Beijing. And across the Global South, countries are asserting greater agency in shaping a more diverse and genuinely multipolar international order.
Amid this change, the willingness to talk creates space for de-escalation and greater understanding. Dialogue creates possibilities that confrontation cannot. A season of deliberative diplomacy, it seems, has arrived.
