EAM Jaishankar said India should not be timid about making choices that benefit it
Emphasizing that “nationalism” is shaping world affairs, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday said it has triggered independence, growth, rebalancing, and multi-polarity.

“Like it or not, the world will be significantly more nationalistic in the foreseeable future. And that means greater individualism, a stronger sense of caution on external commitments, and a global architecture that will be considerably less disciplined,” Jaishankar said in remarks at the 7th Jasjit Singh Memorial Lecture at Centre of Air Power Studies in New Delhi on August 2.

In this situation, he called for clinical evaluation of global happenings by India.

“Often, what is good for us as a national interest is also good for the world. That arises partly from the tight connection that we have nurtured with the Global South and the confidence that they repose in us. There are multiple divides and frictions in the world now, many of them overlapping. The fundamental one is between those powers competing for the top of the global hierarchy,” Jaishankar said.

He said despite the world being beset with multiples divides and frictions, with powers competing for the top of the global hierarchy, India should not be timid about making choices that benefit it.

“A multi-vector foreign policy with national security and Comprehensive National Power growth at its core is obviously the answer for India in these circumstances,” he said.
The EAM also said that India being the fifth largest economy in the world will be the third economic power soon.

“The fact is that the fifth largest economy in the world, likely to be the third soon, with the kind of external interests that we have developed, and will continue to grow, we cannot shirk responsibilities. In fact, it is very much in our interest that this uncertain world is stabilized to the extent possible by rules, by regimes and by law. And equally important, we have a say in fashioning them.”

For a prosperous and modern India, he envisioned that the country should focus on:
(i) Build core strengths and deep capabilities ASAP. Especially for a world of chips, drones, space and underwater. Rashtra Suraksha is AtmaNirbharta.
(ii) Focus on technology and related HR. Prepare for the era of AI that we have entered. Create the institutional capacities and practices for it.
(iii) Mitigate external exposure to leveraging by building multiple options.
(iv) Find convergent partners and advance specific agendas. No matter if they sometimes are at odds; diplomacy will find a way. Trust us.
(v) Leapfrog on capabilities, out-think on tactics and don’t be gamed.
(vi) Fix the bane of all systems i.e., siloed thinking. Integration, jointness and holistic approaches are not just military challenges but systemic ones as well.

While calling a multi-polar world a “natural expression of global diversity,” Jaishankar said “middle powers” have grown in weight and numbers after the end of the Cold War and dissipation of unipolarity.

“With the end of the Cold War and the dissipation of that brief period of unipolarity, the world is dealing with the weakening of an overarching architecture. No nation, indeed no alliance, has the ability anymore to impose its will across the world. Not just that, all of them are so chary of commitments that very often, they willingly leave players in any region to sort out a particular problem,” Jaishankar said.

He said multi-polarity is driving the very nature of the global order, creating a new set of more consequential powers, and enhancing the regionalization of international politics.
However, the EAM said that multi-polarity is in its early stage of emergence and is unevenly developed.

“Multi-polarity is still in its early stages, it is unevenly developed and imperfectly evolved. Grasping its intricacies is therefore itself an enormous challenge. At times, we could overestimate it,” Jaishankar said.

He said the very nature of power has changed as such, application of force is now less necessary to exert influence.

“Application of force is less necessary now to exert influence, in fact it is often counter-productive. Instead, we have seen the increasing leveraging of economic factors and of technology in world affairs. Sanctions are an extreme example,” EAM Jaishankar  said.