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Amid instability, global workforce will rise: Jaishankar
India’s foreign minister argued that the world is accelerating towards multipolarity, with countries looking across the world for new partnerships to safeguard their national interest
Globalisation will not stop but economic and geopolitical unpredictability has increased sharply, acknowledged external affairs minister S Jaishankar in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, and said that the world will see the rise of a global workforce in the coming years.
“Globalisation will not stop. Doing business with each other will not stop. But it is just that different lines of different intensity and different values will now get re-engineered. And it is that process of re-engineering that we are going through now,” said Jaishankar at an event hosted by the Observer Research Foundation.
India’s foreign minister argued that the world is accelerating towards multipolarity, with countries looking across the world for new partnerships to safeguard their national interest. But this new multipolarity will have to be built by developing national capabilities, Jaishankar argued.
Jaishankar pointed to the recent rapid and unstable change in world politics, and said this unpredictability has left countries worried. In his second term, US president Donald Trump has upended global supply chains with reciprocal tariffs on trading partners in a push to boost manufacturing in the US.
“Now, we also have to protect ourselves against the uncertainty of market access. You worry about overdependence on markets just as you worry about overdependence on suppliers and connectivity. Almost the entire economic chain has become far riskier,” Jaishankar added. He declared that both developed nations in Europe, as well as countries in the Global South, were looking to diversify partnerships.
However, the Indian foreign minister also stated that trade was far easier today than ever before and expressed optimism that new trading arrangements and partnership will take hold. He also stated that the world will see the rise of a global workforce over the coming years, regardless of disagreements of where such a workforce will be located.
Earlier this month, Trump imposed a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa applications. Over 70% of such visas go to Indian nationals. The move came on top of a punitive 25 per cent tariff on imports from India for purchases of Russian oil, taking the total levies imposed on the country by the US to 50%, among the highest in the world.
After criticising Pakistan for its sponsorship of terrorism at the UN General assembly on Saturday, Jaishankar continued his engagements at the UN. He met UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the President of the UN General Assembly Annalena Baerbock. He went on to meet with Algeria’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf and Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan to discuss the situation in West Asia. During his national address , Jaishankar expressed India’s support for diplomatic efforts to end the conflict in Gaza. The minister’s engagements in New York this week also focused heavily on India’s partnerships with Europe and in the developing world, particularly in Latin and Central America. Jaishankar participated in multilateral meetings of the BRICS and G20 while also meeting with SICA countries, which is a collection of 8 Central American states, and the CELAC forum, which brings together 33 Latin American and Caribbean nations. Jaishankar also met with leaders from the Pacific Islands in the FIPIC forum in New York.
