First, Mandela's statement does what Indian diplomats in the past have always taken credit for preventing: internationalising the Kashmir issue. Second, the statement has caught India absolutely unawares, and the embarrassment is all the greater because prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee is also gracing the occasion at Durban. Third, and this is perhaps the most significant impact of Mandela's statement: it brings into the open the fact that India is suffering a degree of diplomatic isolation , because Mandela, a former recipient of the Jawaharlal Nehru award for peace and international understanding, has traditionally been one of India's closest friends.In Moscow, US president Bill Clinton has been using his tremendous influence over a vastly weakened Russia to force the once India-ally nation to declare that it willwithdraw from military cooperation with India. India's diplomatic think-tank must meet this challenge of growing isolation, something India can ill-afford in an increasingly smaller world.

The challenge can be met only through one medium: more trade and economic ties. China has shown that no isolation is too great to overcome if there is a powerful enough economic logic driving relationships along. India must tailor its foreign investment and trade policies in a way that, without sacrificing the cause of domestic industries, manages to create a vested interest for international investors in India. Apart from becoming an attractive investment destination, India must also play its nuclear politics card very carefully, making it clear to the world and the NAM that it is dealing with a mature democracy.