Highlighting India’s leadership in Global South, the External Affairs Minister of India, Subramaniam Jaishankar said on March 8, 2024 that 125 countries of the platform placed their trust in India and that China skipped the two meetings convened by India last year to listen to their concerns.
Addressing the Nikkei Forum on the India-Japan partnership here in Tokyo, Japan, the top Indian diplomat said the countries of the Global South feel each other on several issues.
“On a lot of issues, theses counties feel for each other. The feeling has been intensified by COVID because many countries of the Global South felt that they were in the last line to get the vaccine. They even felt at the time when India became the G20 President that their concerns were not even there during the G20,” he said.
“So, we did two meetings last year because we wanted to listen to these 125 countries and then put before the G20, a set of issues which were the collective view of these 125 countries. Within Asia and Africa, the Global South is very active in these continents. They know exactly what is happening, who is speaking up for them and how these issues are getting on the table,” the minister said.
“They don’t think it is a coincidence that it was under the G20 presidency that the African Union, which have been long promised a seat in the G20, got it. So, the Global South believes us,” he said. “The two summits which we convened last year, to listen to these concerns, I don’t think China was present, Jaishankar said referring to the Chinese President Xi Jinping not attending the G20 summit and deputing Li Qiang instead.
About India’s relationship with Russia and criticism of Moscow wars in Ukraine, he said, “Sometimes in the world politics, countries pickup one issue, one situation, one principle and they highlight it because it suits them. But if one looks at the principle itself, we in India know better than almost any other country.”
“Immediately after independence, we experienced aggression, an effort to change boundaries and even today parts of India are occupied by another country, but we did not see the world respond saying, oh there is a great principle involved and therefore let us all go with India.”
“Today we are being told that there are principles involved. I wish I would have seen that principle in play for the last eighty years. I have seen these principles cherry picked,” Jaishankar said. “I would say injustice was done to us. I am not advocating it should be done to everybody else. We have been very clear. My PM has stood next to Putin and said we want this conflict end,” he said.
Talking about India’s strategic importance as an Asian neighbour, the minister said, “Due to the tragic conflict takin place in Ukraine, the energy costs went up, food costs went up, fertilisers prices have gone up and a country like Sri Lanka faced an economic crisis.
If you see which countries stepped forward to protect and assist Sri Lanka, India put up a package within a matter of few weeks, in fact four and half billion dollars. Just so that you understand, the IMF packet which took most longer was less than three billion USD. So, our direct bilateral support to Sri Lanka was 50 percent larger than what the IMF gave.
Jaishankar said that India as a big economy understood its obligations and took its Global South responsibility very seriously. “We do recognise today that as a big economy, we have more responsibilities. But I also would like the world to recognise that we may be a big economy, but we are still an economy whose per capita income is below USD 3,000.
So, when we give something to the world, it is done with a great deal of sacrifice and a great effort on the part of the people of India. Indians’ sense of international obligation is very strong. As I said during vaccinations, while we had not completed our vaccination yet we gave vaccines. So, we take our global south responsibility very, very seriously.”
In response to a question about whether India would impose sanctions on China if it invaded Taiwan, Jaishankar said, “Let me make two or three observations here. By and large, it has not been India’s foreign policy method. We rarely do sanctions.”
China views Taiwan, a self-governing island, as a rebel province that must be reunified with the mainland even by force. “The sanctions are something which is very much rooted in a Western way, or I would say a G-7 way of working because they control the means to apply the sanctions.
I’m trying to think the only time when we have very strongly advocated sanctions ourselves was against South Africa during the apartheid period when most of the developed countries did not want to do sanctions.
“In today’s situation, there is a big debate about whether sanctions work or if they don’t work. What is the cost? What is the cost to people? I just want to make one point it has nothing to do with Taiwan or China or Russia.”
Talking as to how a stable government can significantly carve out a country’s foreign policy, Jaishankar said, “Every country, every society is different.
So, what can apply to India need not always be the same for other countries. But our own experience is that the lack of stability in politics affects foreign diplomacy. To have majorities in Parliament to take bold steps makes a very big difference. Here, I am certain that we have a stable government for at least a decade or even more.”
He said huge changes were happening in terms of development in India and that India’s economy was growing rapidly along with employment opportunities.
“And that is one of the changes which is happening today. Today, India stands third in the number of startups in the world and the number of unicorns that have come up in this period are inspirational. On the semiconductor side, this is the industry of the future. This is where the jobs will grow. We’ve had companies from abroad actually employ people in India,” he said.
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