The foreign minister restated New Delhi’s non-aligned foreign policy in the face of mounting pressure from the West to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said today that India does not require the approval of any other country for the course it chooses to pursue, confirming New Delhi’s non-aligned foreign policy in the face of increasing pressure from the West to take a strong stance against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Mr Jaishankar stated that New Delhi cannot please other countries by being a “pale imitation” of what they are.
”We have to be confident about who we are. I think it’s better to engage with the world on the basis of who we are rather than try and please the world by being a pale imitation of what they are.”- The Foreign Minister at the Raisina Dialogue, an international gathering of leaders and policy makers
“The idea that others define us, that you know somewhere we need to get approval from other quarters, I think, that’s an era we need to put behind.”
Mr. Jaishankar fielded questions from European Foreign Ministers yesterday on India’s position in the Ukraine issue, as well as where Europe stood when Asian countries, such as Afghanistan, were in trouble. Mr. Jaishankar, who accused European countries of essentially throwing Afghan civil society under the bus, reminded European leaders that there were equally important crises in other parts of the world that were also in jeopardy.
Mr. Jaishankar believes India should be pragmatic in its use of the international environment and remedy past mistakes by focusing more on hard security.
“If I were to pick a single thing we have done, a difference that we have made to the world in the last 75 years, is a fact that we are a democracy.”
Mr. Jaishankar stated that there is a “gut feeling” that democracy is the way of the future, and that this is owing in large part to India’s past decisions. “There was a period when we were the only democracy in this region of the world. In some ways, India deserves credit for the globalisation of democracy that we see today “he stated
In terms of where India had fallen short in the past, Mr Jaishankar said the country had not paid enough attention to its social indices and human resources. “Two, we didn’t spend as much time as we should have on manufacturing and technology trends. Three, we didn’t place as much emphasis on hard security in terms of foreign policy.”
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