Recognise US’s unique position in multipolar world, seek closer ties: Jaishankar
EAM slams foreign interference in politics, underlines multipolarity, describes India’s role on Ukraine
External affairs minister S Jaishankar has said that India recognises America’s “unique position” in a multipolar world; it seeks closer ties with the US in a range of areas including technology, where the partnership is not just “transactional” but also based on “beliefs” and “comfort”; and India’s approach of “multi-alignment” rather than non alignment has led to Delhi shedding its reticence, making choices and embracing groupings such as Quad.
At the same time, Jaishankar emphasised that India has a different political history and its own set of interests, urged for democracies to be “mutually respectful”, and slammed foreign interference when it came to engaging with the politics of another country. He also underlined that the shifts in political and economic power have led to the emergence of more decision-makers and more regionalisation of the global landscape, and told American interlocutors that while India had never targeted the dollar, some of US’s own policies forced actors to look for “workarounds” the currency.
Jaishankar was speaking at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC on Tuesday morning eastern time. A group of Khalistani protesters outside the institute’s premises chanted slogans against India and Hindus, including abusive slogans that amounted to outright hate speech.
The minister is on a three-day visit to the American capital after a week in New York where he addressed the UN General Assembly and met over 60 counterparts. On Monday, Jaishankar met secretary of commerce Gina Raimondo on Monday where both sides, according to Jaishankar’s post on X, discussed semiconductors, the initiative on critical and emerging technologies, supply chain resilience, and critical minerals. Later on Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony J Blinken was scheduled to receive Jaishankar at the State Department.
Wars, present and future
A key part of the discussion was around conflicts. Describing India’s role primarily in terms of being one of facilitating “communication” between Russia and Ukraine with the eventual hope of finding a pathway to negotiations and peace, Jaishankar reiterated that India believed wars were not the way to settle disputes, that the solution could not be found on the battlefield, and that eventually negotiations had to happen. With these principles in mind, India initiated exploratory discussions.
“We are very measured and circumspect about what we are doing. We aren’t hyping it. We are communicating what we hear to the other side. The intent is to be helpful. And we keep other people informed when necessary. There aren’t many countries in the world who have the ability to go to the two capitals, talk to the leaders, and go back to the other one. We are not promising anything. We are not suggesting we have a grand bargain or peace plan. We are trying to be helpful,” he said.
He also expressed India’s concern at the widening of the conflict in West Asia and expressed New Delhi’s willingness to play a similar role, emphasising the importance of communication during moments of crisis.
Jaishankar responded to a question on Taiwan by framing it in terms of the adverse consequences for the rest of the world, and thus, indirectly pleading for status quo and restraint. He said that the international economy was “very fragile” and that he had travelled to many parts of the world which had seen a visible drop in the quality of life in the past five years. “The lessons of tensions and conflict anywhere is that in a globalised world, it causes problems everywhere. It is no longer regional.” He alluded to India convening the global south summit and said these countries were extremely concerned about new stresses. “People want reassurance. They want stability. Life is tough enough. No one wants more anxiety.”
The India-US partnership
After explaining the Indian view of multipolarity, the moderator asked Jaishankar how multi-alignment differed from the past policy of non-alignment. The minister placed the earlier approach in the context of the times when India’s “interests were defensive, capabilities were less and contributions were less”. Now, India’s interests had expanded and subsequently it was willing to play a greater role, he suggested.
“You have a dog in every fight as you get bigger. You may not like it but you have got to work on it directly or indirectly. Then the willingness to take risks increases because once you want an outcome, you can’t be passive. There is also more willingness to make choices. In non-alignment, there was reticence…You won’t have a Quad in the non-aligned era. You would have Quad in the multi-aligned era.”
Responding to a question on how US fit into this framework, given its persistent strengths, Jaishankar first said that he was not a “declinist”, alluding to those who were working on the assumption of American decline. Instead, he said, “There is no question that the US still has a unique position. Some may suggest otherwise..but even they know the truth. But it is also true that the dominance the US had in the 1950s or 1960s or 1990s or 2000s, it doesn’t have.” India was comfortable working with the US on tech, maritime security, supply chain, international institutions, among other issues, he said, adding that India had come out overwhelmingly in favour of stronger ties with the US in recent decades.
In terms of India-US cooperation on tech broadly and artificial intelligence in particular, Jaishankar said there was a convergence. “In a data driven world, issues of privacy, security, law, what’s allowed and what’s not, what you are comfortable doing and what you are not, become important. I see a convergence here. And it is not a transactional convergence. It is a comfort and belief convergence. This is an area where our conversations and on the ground cooperation has grown a lot.” In this domain, the minister spoke of “partners of comfort”, and added Europe and Japan as others with whom India was collaborating.
But the minister, in response to a question on democracy, also laid out clear redlines. He said, “The reality is that the world is very globalised. As a result the politics of a country doesn’t stay in one country. The US makes a special effort to ensure it doesn’t…it is important that democracies are mutually respectful. Foreign interference is foreign interference. It is a testy area. You have every right to comment but I have every right to comment on your comment.”