During the early years his rule Tipu Sultan sent an embasy to the Ottoman capital of Istanbul, to Sultan Abdul Hamid I requesting urgent assistance against the British East India Company and had proposed an offensive and defensive consortium. However,the Ottomans were at crisis and still recuperating from the devastating Austro-Ottoman War and the Russo-Turkish Wars. Due to the Ottoman-inability to organize a fleet in the Indian Ocean, Tipu Sultan's ambassadors returned home only with gifts from Abdul Hamid I and later Selim III.

Like his father Hyder Ali before him,Tipu Sultan maintained many embassies and made several contacts with Mohammad Ali Khan ruler of the Zand Dynasty in Persia. Tipu Sultan also maintained correspondence with Hamad bin Said,the ruler of the Sultanate of Oman.