Emerging economies must take leadership role, says Jaishankar
Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar on Wednesday said India, and other emerging economies, should step up to take a leadership role in global geopolitics at a time when the western World was becoming more inward looking and turning away from its international responsibilities, including meeting the challenge of terrorism.
Calling for democratisation of global institutions, the foreign secretary said the big dangers confronting the world can only be addressed through multilateralism and greater number of players in an increasingly multi-polar world would need agreed formats to reach common outcomes.
Speaking at the second day of the Raisina Dialogue, an international conference on geopolitics jointly organised by the Ministry of External Affairs and New Delhi-based think tank Observer Research Foundation, Jaishankar said India is a natural exponent of multilateralism, and this reflects India’s own domestic traditions of pluralism and diversity.
The foreign secretary said India believed in the desirability and inevitability of a multipolar world. “It was inconceivable for us that a world as vast and diverse as ours could be run by a small set of powers through alliances. Over the years, other countries including China came around to this point of view,” he said. Jaishankar said India is confident that with the passage of time and the economic revival of Asia, Africa and Latin America, the dispersal of power in the world would become more equitable.
Jaishankar, who has led India’s negotiations to become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), said entrenched powers rarely give up privileges easily, even if they pay lip service to the deserving. “Such tasks require patience, perseverance and determination and I can say with some assurance that we have them in full measure,” he said.
On the issue of the long pending reforms to the UN Security Council, the Foreign Secretary said that the “absurdity of the main multilateral decision-making body being more than 70 years old — and due for retirement anywhere in the world — is obvious to all except those with a vested interest.” He said the pressures to reform the UN will grow with each passing day since the myriad of global challenges will eventually require a credible multilateral response.
Jaishankar said that global politics and economy were currently in a state of flux, but the Western world and Asia presented different landscapes and divergent narratives. He said the mood in Asia, despite its challenges, a reference to Chinese assertiveness in the region, was more optimistic compared to Europe.
Jaishankar said that while “globalisation has not stopped — indeed cannot stop, just because someone somewhere has called ‘time out”, the voices advocating inter-dependence and globalisation have become more muted in the Western world. He said part of the world has also betrayed “a lack of purpose in confronting global challenges like terrorism” and has become “more inward looking” and, in some ways, “more tired.”
The foreign secretary said the change in mood was from the impact of developments in US and Europe. He said that after decades of American internationalism, the world is “finally face to face with its nationalism”, and Russia and Europe, too, have become less internationalist in their outlook.
“Emerging powers, including regional ones, have shown little inclinations in that direction. India is actually an exception,” he said. Jaishankar asked whether nationalism is “the new normal and can India make a difference — by being different?” He said that India understands that there is a global stock-taking going on and that emerging economies must approach this trend with empathy, rather than anxiety.