International Relations Current Affairs One-liners — All time
Daily news by your exam, state and topic — each with a short summary, key facts and MCQs.
Sun, 17 May 2026
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson held talks in Gothenburg during the PM's visit on 17 May 2026, elevated India–Sweden ties to a Strategic Partnership and adopted the India-Sweden Joint Action Plan 2026-2030.
- On 17 May 2026 PM Narendra Modi and Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten visited the 32-km Afsluitdijk dam, and the two sides welcomed a Letter of Intent on technical cooperation for Gujarat's Kalpasar project.
- On 17 May 2026 Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden conferred the Royal Order of the Polar Star, Degree Commander Grand Cross, on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Gothenburg, making him the first Asian leader to receive it.
- Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and PM Narendra Modi exchanged gifts honouring Rabindranath Tagore during the PM's visit to Sweden on 17 May 2026, marking the centenary of Tagore's 1926 visit to Sweden.
Sat, 16 May 2026
- On 16 May 2026 Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten met in The Hague, elevated India–Netherlands relations to a Strategic Partnership and adopted a Strategic Partnership Roadmap for 2026-2030.
- On 16 May 2026 Leiden University Library in the Netherlands restituted the 11th-century Chola Copper Plates to the Government of India in the presence of PM Narendra Modi and Dutch PM Rob Jetten.
- The outcomes of PM Narendra Modi's visit to the Netherlands, released on 17 May 2026, include an Indo-Dutch Centre of Excellence for Flowers in West Tripura and an Indo-Dutch Centre of Excellence on Training in Dairy at CEAH, Bengaluru.
- Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal gave the keynote address at the 2nd meeting of the BRICS Contact Group on Trade and Economic Issues (CGETI) in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, PIB reported on 16 May 2026, saying intra-BRICS trade had risen to US$1.17 trillion.
- On 16 May 2026 PM Narendra Modi and Dutch PM Rob Jetten witnessed the signing of an agreement between Tata Electronics and ASML to support India's first front-end semiconductor fab at Dholera, Gujarat.
- On 16 May 2026 Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Ali Falih Kadhim al-Zaidi on assuming office as Prime Minister of Iraq.
- The Indian Navy's oceanographic research vessel INS Sagardhwani left Port Klang, Malaysia, on 15 May 2026 after an engagement with the Royal Malaysian Navy focused on hydrography and oceanography.
Fri, 15 May 2026
- On 15 May 2026 PM Narendra Modi visited the UAE, where India and the UAE signed an ISPRL–ADNOC pact for up to 30 million barrels of ADNOC crude in India's strategic reserves, a Framework for the Strategic Defence Partnership, and announced US$5 billion of UAE investment.
- The Kimberley Process (KP) Intersessional Meeting 2026, a four-day meeting on the natural diamond trade held under India's Chairship and its '3Cs' theme, concluded in Mumbai, PIB said on 15 May 2026.
- Minister of State Jayant Chaudhary represented India at the swearing-in of Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni for his seventh term and visited NFSU's Jinja campus, India's first overseas public academic campus, PIB said on 15 May 2026.
Thu, 14 May 2026
- On 14 May 2026 Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav inaugurated the 'Lion' Species Spotlight event at Sasan Gir, Gujarat, a pre-summit event of the first IBCA Summit to be held in New Delhi on 1–2 June 2026.
- On 14 May 2026 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called on PM Narendra Modi and briefed him on bilateral progress since the 23rd India–Russia Annual Summit of December 2025.
- The ITU Council 2026 in Geneva (28 April–8 May) accepted India's proposal to host the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in 2030 (PP-2030), likely to be approved at PP-2026 in Doha in November 2026, DoT said on 14 May.
- On 13 May 2026 Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal held the curtain raiser for the India-Africa Business Dialogue & Exhibition, to be held alongside the 4th India-Africa Forum Summit, noting India–Africa trade of US$93.69 billion in 2025-26.
- India has been nominated Chair of the Common Criteria Development Board (CCDB), the technical core of the Common Criteria Recognition Arrangement, from April 2026 to April 2028, MeitY said on 14 May 2026.
Wed, 13 May 2026
- The Ports Ministry said on 13 May 2026 that HD KSOE, NSHIP-TN and Sagarmala Finance Corporation signed an MoU on 20 April 2026 for India's first mega greenfield shipyard at Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu, with 2.5 million GT annual capacity.
- On 13 May 2026 Chile's Foreign Minister Francisco Pérez Mackenna held talks with Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal in New Delhi, and both sides reaffirmed their commitment to an early conclusion of the India–Chile CEPA.
Tue, 12 May 2026
- On 12 May 2026 India and the International Fund for Agricultural Development launched a new eight-year Country Strategic Opportunities Programme (COSOP) for 2026–2033 to raise rural incomes and resilience.
- On 11 May 2026 the National Centre for Good Governance began its first capacity-building programme for 29 senior civil servants of Seychelles, the first step under a February 2026 MoU to train 250 Seychellois officials.
Sun, 10 May 2026
Sat, 09 May 2026
Fri, 08 May 2026
- On 8 May 2026 India and Canada concluded the second round of negotiations for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), held from 4 to 8 May at Vanijya Bhawan, New Delhi, with the next round set for July 2026 in Ottawa.
- On 8 May 2026 the 10th India–Australia Defence Policy Talks were held in New Delhi, co-chaired by Joint Secretary Amitabh Prasad and Australia's First Assistant Secretary Bernard Philip, with both sides looking ahead to the first India–Australia Joint Staff Talks later this year.
- On 8 May 2026 the MSME Ministry said that, as BRICS Chair in 2026, India will convene three SME Working Group meetings and the inaugural BRICS MSME Forum under the BRICS Partnership on the New Industrial Revolution (PartNIR), the first meeting having focused on access to finance.
Thu, 07 May 2026
- On 7 May 2026 the Pavilion of India opened at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia with 'Geographies of Distance: remembering home', curated by Dr Amin Jaffer, marking India's return to the Biennale Arte since 2019.
- On 6–7 May 2026 Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agarwal visited Switzerland to review implementation of the India–EFTA Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA), India's first trade agreement with the EFTA economies, as India's exports to Switzerland crossed USD 1.2 billion in FY 2025–26.