Another overseas trip, another state honour for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Indonesia awarded Modi its highest civilian honour – Bintang Adipurna – on July 7 during his high-profile visit to Jakarta this week, bringing his tally of foreign government awards to at least 35.
As one of India’s longest-serving prime ministers, 75-year-old Modi has now more foreign state honours than his previous counterparts and is one of the most decorated serving leaders in the world.
In 2026 alone, Modi collected six awards – roughly one a month – including from Slovakia, Norway and Israel.
By comparison, US President Donald Trump has received just one foreign state honour in 2026.
Over his two terms in office, Trump has under 10 foreign state awards, according to publicly available records.
The awards are often a tool of diplomacy between nations, but also hold political value at home by reinforcing Modi’s image as a globally respected statesman, said James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
“It’s a tool in forging relations and in strengthening relations and countries do so because they want to strengthen their relationship with India and Modi,” he said.
Some opposition leaders have criticised Modi’s growing list of awards and questioned the credibility of some of the medals.
In the Seychelles, the government created the Guardian of the Blue Horizon award just days before presenting it to Modi last week, prompting questions about the medal.
Social media users also highlighted apparent AI-generated artwork and spelling errors in a citation document accompanying the award.
Seychelles’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs later clarified the document circulating online was an inadvertently released working draft and that the final citation had since been issued.
It maintained that the Guardian of the Blue Horizon is a legitimate state honour.
The Medal of the Knesset, which Israel awarded to Modi in February, was also controversial.
Modi was the first recipient of the award, which was created shortly before his trip to the country and given to him days before Israel began its war with Iran.
Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and government officials typically promote the statements of his awards for local audiences.
“It is another feather in the cap and would be used domestically by his party,” said Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, the author of ‘Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times,’ which explores the Indian leader’s political rise.
“The publicity machinery of his party will amplify it despite the controversy.”
The BJP said on July 7 that Modi’s award from Indonesia was an endorsement of India’s diplomacy.
In accepting the medal from Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto, Modi said the honour “belongs to the people of India” and was a tribute to strong ties between the two countries.
Previous recipients of the medal include India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who was awarded it posthumously in 1995, Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Queen Elizabeth II.
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