PM Modi's foreign visits cost over Rs 180 crore in 2025, govt tells Rajya Sabha

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visits to 23 countries in 2025, including the US, the UK, France, China and Japan, cost over Rs 180 crore, according to data shared by the government in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, 6 August.

In a written reply, minister of state for external affairs Pabitra Margherita said expenditure on the prime minister's overseas visits in 2025 totalled nearly Rs 187 crore.

The government also said expenditure on foreign visits undertaken so far in 2026 stood at nearly Rs 74.58 crore, including Modi's tour of Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand from 6-11 July.

The details were shared in response to questions by MPs Sanjay Singh and V. Sivadasan, who sought country-wise details of the prime minister's foreign visits since 2021 and the expenditure incurred on them, year-wise and visit-wise.

Margherita attached a detailed annexure listing the expenditure for each visit.

"The details of foreign visits undertaken by the prime minister since 2021 and total expenditure incurred on each foreign visit, year-wise and visit-wise are placed at Annexure-I. For reference purposes, expenditure on prime minister's foreign visits earlier was INR 10,74,27,363 (USA, 2011), INR 9,95,76,890 (Russia, 2013), INR 8,33,49,463 (France, 2011) and INR 6,02,23,484 (Germany, 2013). These figures show actual expenditure without adjusting for inflation or currency fluctuations," he said.

According to the data, the cost of Modi's visits to individual countries in 2025 included France (Rs 25.59 crore), Brazil (Rs 17.72 crore), the US (Rs 16.54 crore), Saudi Arabia (Rs 15.54 crore), China (Rs 10.59 crore) and the UK (Rs 9.91 crore), among others.

Other countries visited by the prime minister during the year included Mauritius, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Cyprus, Canada, Croatia, Ghana, Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina, Namibia, the Maldives, Japan, Bhutan, South Africa, Jordan, Oman and Ethiopia.

The cumulative expenditure on the prime minister's foreign visits since 2021 has steadily increased over the years. Earlier data shared by the government in July 2025 showed spending of nearly Rs 295 crore between 2021 and 2024. With the addition of 2025 expenditure, the total outlay since 2021 has crossed Rs 480 crore.

The year-wise expenditure stood at about Rs 36 crore in 2021, Rs 55.82 crore in 2022, nearly Rs 93 crore in 2023 and around Rs 109 crore in 2024.

According to the data, Modi visited Bangladesh, the US, Italy and the UK in 2021.

The MPs also sought details of bilateral agreements and memoranda of understanding (MoUs) signed during the prime minister's visits, investment commitments announced, and the foreign direct investment (FDI) received as a result.

Responding to the query, Margherita said high-level visits by the prime minister play an important role in strengthening India's bilateral and multilateral engagement.

"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. 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," he said.

In a separate annexure, the minister said 316 MoUs had been signed during the prime minister's foreign visits since July 2021. He also informed the House that India received total FDI of USD 381.8 billion between April 2021 and December 2025.

With PTI inputs