New Delhi: External Affairs Minister (EAM) Dr S Jaishankar has said that India is a “patient country” and does not go around picking up quarrels with others, but it will, at the same time, never allow its ‘basic bottom lines’ to be crossed.
“We have today the image of the country which is willing to do what it takes to defend its national security. India is a very patient country, it is not a country that goes around picking fights with other people, but it is a country that will not be pushed out. This is a country that will not allow its basic bottom lines to be crossed,” he said.
Addressing the ‘Festival of Thinkers’ organised by the Symbiosis International University at Pune on February 23, he said, “In the last few years, we have been tested for a long time on our western border. I think things are a little different now, and everyone will agree. Few things have happened in 2016 and 2019, and we have been tested, and we are being tested on our northern borders”.
This was in the context of the Uri terror attack, the 2019 Pulwama terror attack, and India’s strong retaliation on both occasions. India is also becoming “the voice of the global south” and wants to go into G20, saying that “there is a large part of the world which is not sitting on that table, but they have a legitimate interest and somebody needs to speak up for them”.
Referring to the Ukraine conflict, Dr Jaishankar said the pressures that came with that conflict were also the moment when our sense of independence and confidence was tested. He also said a data security and data privacy are the biggest challenges of the digital world, and issues connected to them are expected to be addressed during the G20 meeting.
Today, he said the international community marvels at how India “managed society, how the country fed people during Covid19 and how money was put in people’s bank account”.
Aadhaar has become “a magic number” and is the backbone on which the daily existence of hundreds of millions of people depends, he said.
“If the world today has expectations, the contribution of India, it is the economic contribution that is underpinned by enormous governance record, especially in digital delivery,” the Minister pointed out.
The Minister referred to remarks from the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, that in “a fairly gloomy global economic scenario”, India’s GDP base is growing at
seven per cent and is likely to increase in the coming decade.
“I would encourage you to read a set of remarks by the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Krystalina Georgieva. She has pointed out that in what is otherwise, frankly, a fairly gloomy global economic scenario, to have a country like India with this GDP base growing at seven per cent and likely to continue, if not actually increase it in the coming decade, that is something about which the world has great expectations,” said Dr Jaishankar.
“Kristalina Georgieva says that 15 per cent of the world’s growth this year is going to come from India, which means we are 15 per cent of the solution that the G20 is looking for in terms of economic growth and development, but it isn’t just growth, the G20 is actually looking at how we handled the COVID challenges,” he said.
When COVID-19 became a global concern in January 2020, there was a “sense of the briefing to the G20” that India would not be able to cope with a pandemic, but “we proved them completely wrong”, he asserted.
Technology is a hugely complicated factor, and “technology, the implications and its complications” are major issues which G20 is expected to address.
“The biggest challenge today when it comes to anything digital is data security and data privacy. What it boils down to is who sees your data, who harvests your data, who monetises your data, who utilises your data and what power do they have over you as a result of all this,” the Minister said.
Having more resilient, reliable and multiple supply chains was a major concern. He said, adding there is a need for more trusted practices to ensure privacy is respected and conveniences of life do not become
a vulnerability for each one of us as well as for the nations.
He also stated that since it is a polarised world, different countries will try to “prejudice you”.
“…..They will urge you. Sometimes they use strong words. Now, how do you stand up for your interests and sometimes the interests of others who may not have the same ability and strengths that you do. We see that today,” Dr S Jaishankar said.
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