New Delhi, August 7, 2026: The Government of India spent Rs 557.51 crore on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visits to 77 countries between 2021 and July 2026, according to information provided by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
Minister of State for External Affairs Pabitra Margherita provided the figures in response to questions from MPs Sanjay Singh and V Sivadasan. The expenditure included Rs 74.59 crore on visits to 12 countries in 2026.
The government said the Prime Minister’s foreign visits and the agreements reached during them helped strengthen India’s international partnerships across several sectors.
2025 Was The Costliest Year
The highest annual expenditure during the period was recorded in 2025, when Modi visited 23 countries at a cost of Rs 187.83 crore.
In 2026, the Prime Minister’s visit to Norway in May for a bilateral meeting and the India-Nordic Summit was the most expensive trip, costing Rs 17.46 crore. His Israel visit in February cost Rs 11.92 crore, while the Seychelles visit in June cost Rs 8.22 crore and the Sweden trip in May cost Rs 6.32 crore.
The government spent Rs 5.57 crore on Modi’s visit to Malaysia in February, Rs 1.97 crore on the United Arab Emirates, Rs 3.6 crore on the Netherlands and Rs 4.23 crore on Italy, with the latter three visits taking place in May.
A visit to the Slovak Republic in June cost Rs 4.77 crore. The government also spent Rs 3.87 crore on a visit to Indonesia, Rs 1.18 crore on Australia and Rs 5.43 crore on New Zealand in July.
The figures for 2026 do not include expenditure on Modi’s visit to France in June to attend an outreach session of the G20 Summit and hold bilateral meetings. Margherita said the “compilation of bills is still underway”.
316 Agreements Signed During Visits
According to the government, the Prime Minister’s foreign trips between 2021 and 2026 resulted in 316 agreements, including government-to-government pacts and memoranda of understanding (MoUs) involving government institutions, research bodies and universities.
The agreements covered areas including defence, trade, investment, nuclear energy research and development, healthcare, renewable energy, space, sports and culture.
“High-level visits by the Prime Minister are established means of fostering closer relations with foreign countries and promoting India’s engagements at bilateral, regional and global levels,” Margherita said.
“These visits, and the understandings and agreements concluded therein, facilitate the strengthening of partnerships across a wide range of sectors, including technology, innovation, trade and investment, defence and energy cooperation, and resilient supply chains, among others.”
The government’s figures put the Rs 557.51 crore expenditure in the broader context of the diplomatic and economic outcomes of the visits. However, the expenditure figures and the number of agreements alone do not establish the individual economic return from each trip, The Hindu reported.
Margherita also said India received $381.8 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) between April 2021 and December 2025.
France Trip Topped 2025 Expenditure
Of Modi’s visits to 23 countries in 2025, the five most expensive included France at Rs 25.59 crore, Brazil at Rs 17.72 crore, the US at Rs 16.54 crore, Saudi Arabia at Rs 15.54 crore and China at Rs 10.6 crore.
In 2024, Modi visited 17 countries at a total cost of Rs 109.51 crore. The costliest trips that year included the US at Rs 15.33 crore, Italy at Rs 14.36 crore, Russia at Rs 10.75 crore, Poland at Rs 10.1 crore and Singapore at Rs 7.75 crore.
Visits to 11 countries in 2023 cost Rs 93.63 crore. Among the most expensive were the US at Rs 22.89 crore, Japan at Rs 17.19 crore, France at Rs 13.74 crore and Papua New Guinea at Rs 8.58 crore.
The Prime Minister visited 10 countries in 2022 at a total cost of Rs 55.83 crore. Two separate visits to Germany cost Rs 14.47 crore and Rs 9.44 crore, while a visit to Japan cost Rs 8.68 crore.
In 2021, Modi visited four countries at a total cost of Rs 36.12 crore. This included Rs 19.63 crore for a visit to the US and Rs 8.57 crore for a trip to the UK.
UPA-Era Expenditure Also Cited
For comparison, Margherita’s response also provided expenditure figures for some Prime Ministerial foreign visits during the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
The government said Rs 10.74 crore was spent on a US visit in 2011 and Rs 8.33 crore on a France visit in the same year. A visit to Russia in 2013 cost Rs 9.95 crore, while a Germany trip that year cost Rs 6.02 crore.
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“These figures show actual expenditure without adjusting for inflation or currency fluctuations,” Margherita said.
The qualification is important when comparing expenditure across governments because the figures are nominal amounts from different years and do not account for changes in prices or exchange rates.
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