New Delhi, August 6: The cost of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s overseas visits has risen sharply over the past five years, with official data showing that foreign tours in 2025 cost the exchequer ₹173.57 crore, translating to nearly ₹5 crore for every day spent abroad. The trend has continued in 2026, with the disclosed expenditure already averaging about ₹4.6 crore a day up to July, even before the cost of the Prime Minister’s June visit to France has been finalised.
A Rajya Sabha reply by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) shows that the Prime Minister’s foreign visits since 2021 have cost at least ₹411.72 crore. The total is provisional as the expenditure on the June 2026 visit to France has not yet been compiled.
The expenditure reflects a marked increase in India’s overseas diplomatic engagements after the pandemic. Spending rose from ₹36.12 crore in 2021 to ₹49.65 crore in 2022, almost doubled to ₹94.63 crore in 2023, remained high at ₹89.16 crore in 2024, and surged to a record ₹173.57 crore in 2025. With 35 days spent abroad that year, the average expenditure reached ₹4.96 crore per day, the highest during the period.
For the period up to July 2026, the disclosed expenditure has already reached ₹68.59 crore for 15 days spent abroad, averaging ₹4.57 crore per day. Since the expenditure on the Prime Minister’s June 2026 visit to France is yet to be finalised, the cumulative expenditure and the daily average for 2026 are expected to increase further.
The parliamentary question had also sought details of country-wise investment commitments announced during these visits and the actual Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) received as a result. However, the government did not furnish country-wise investment or FDI figures. Instead, it stated that the Prime Minister’s overseas visits strengthened bilateral cooperation in areas such as trade, technology, defence, innovation, energy and resilient supply chains, while noting that India received US$381.8 billion in total FDI during April 2021 to December 2025.
The reply further lists hundreds of agreements and Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) signed during these visits, covering strategic sectors including artificial intelligence, semiconductors, defence manufacturing, critical minerals, renewable energy, digital public infrastructure, space cooperation, healthcare and higher education. However, in the absence of country-wise investment outcomes, Parliament has not been provided with evidence to assess the direct economic returns from these overseas engagements.
