Discuss the role of cultural diplomacy in deepening the India–Denmark Green Strategic Partnership.

Q. Discuss the role of cultural diplomacy in deepening the India–Denmark Green Strategic Partnership. (15 marks, 250-350 words)

Cultural diplomacy uses heritage, history and people-to-people ties to build trust between states. The 2026 MoU between the ASI's Underwater Archaeology Wing and the National Museum of Denmark to survey the wreck of the Danish ship Oresund off Karaikal illustrates how a partnership framed around green goals is being broadened by a heritage track [1].

Anchoring a "green" partnership in shared history - The Green Strategic Partnership (2020) rests largely on energy, climate, water, circular economy and shipping [2], operationalised through the Joint Action Plan 2021–2026 [3]; culture adds an emotive, non-transactional layer to an otherwise sectoral agenda. - The Oresund, the first Danish ship to reach India, wrecked in 1619 near Karaikal (Puducherry) — just before the Danish settlement at Tranquebar in 1620 — gives both states a shared origin story predating colonial rivalries [1][4].

Building scientific and institutional capacity - The project is the first international collaboration of ASI's Underwater Archaeology Wing and uses a non-invasive survey with advanced remote-sensing methods, transferring skills to a still-nascent Indian discipline [1]. - It complements domestic capacity-building, such as the renewed underwater explorations off Dwarka and Bet Dwarka [5].

Widening the constituencies of the partnership - Danish-era sites like Tharangambadi (Tranquebar) and Serampore sustain museums, restoration work, tourism and academic exchange, carrying the relationship beyond government-to-government instruments [4]. - It converges with India's wider maritime heritage diplomacy, including the National Maritime Heritage Complex at Lothal.

Limitations - Cultural initiatives are slow-yielding and symbolic; they cannot substitute for delivery on trade, technology and emissions targets. - India is not a party to the 2001 UNESCO Convention on Underwater Cultural Heritage, leaving a thinner shared legal vocabulary.

Cultural diplomacy therefore acts less as a pillar than as the mortar of the partnership — creating goodwill and institutional familiarity that make cooperation on harder sectors easier. Institutionalising such exchanges within the Joint Action Plan, with defined funding and capacity-building outcomes, would help the partnership mature from a sectoral arrangement into a durable civilisational friendship.

(~330 words)

Sources: 1. ASI and National Museum of Denmark Signed MoU for Underwater Archaeological Investigation of Historic Danish Ship Oresund — PIB (2026) — MoU details, Oresund wrecked 1619 off Karaikal, first Danish ship to India, non-invasive survey, UAW's first international project 2. Joint Statement for India–Denmark Green Strategic Partnership (2020) — sectoral scope of the partnership 3. India–Denmark Joint Action Plan (2021–2026), Embassy of Denmark — operational framework of the GSP 4. India–Denmark Bilateral Brief, Ministry of External Affairs — Danish settlements at Tranquebar and Serampore; historical and cultural ties 5. ASI begins underwater exploration off Dwarka coast — DD News — domestic underwater archaeology capacity-building