A day after calling out the West’s hypocrisy on Ukraine, Afghanistan and challenges that Asia face, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar at the Raisina Dialogue on Wednesday sent out a blunt message to the western countries that India does not need to get approval from other nations on how it engages with the world. “India needs to put behind the idea that it needs to get approval from other nations on how it engages with the world,”
Jaishankar asserted.
He said it is better to engage with the world on the basis of “who we are” rather than try and please the world. He was speaking at an interactive session at the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi. Putting his point in a very straightforward manner, the EAM said, “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 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,” he stressed.
This was Jaishankar’s blunt message to the countries in the West which are criticising India for not slamming Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and for abstaining from the vote at the UNSC condemning “Russian aggression”. This way, Jaishankar reaffirmed India’s non-aligned foreign policy amid growing pressure from the West to take a “clear and strong” stand on Russia’s military operation in Ukraine. In a message to the European and other western countries, Jaishankar said, “The best way forward is to focus on stopping the fighting, getting them talking and finding ways to move forward. We think our choices are best placed to advance that.”
He described India’s position on the Ukraine war as steadfast and consistent. “We have expressed deep concern at the worsening situation and called for an immediate cessation of violence and end to all hostilities,” he said.
On Tuesday during another interactive session at the Raisina Dialogue, Jaishankar took questions from European Foreign Ministers on India’s position in the Ukraine crisis, and asked where Europe was when countries in Asia, such as Afghanistan, faced a crisis. Jaishankar had even accused the European nations of more or less throwing Afghanistan under the bus. What he sought to remind the West was that there were equally pressing issues in other parts of the world, which were also under threat. In an obvious reference to China and Pakistan, Jaishankar had said that the Western nations remained silent on the challenges that Asia has been facing for decades.
“If I were to pick a single thing we have done, the difference that we have made to the world in the last 75 years, is the fact that we are a democracy,” he said on Wednesday. “There is a gut sense that democracy is the future, and a large part of this is due to the choices made by India in the past. There was a time when in this part of the world, we were the only democracy. If democracy is global today or we see it global today, in some measure, the credit is due to India,” he added.