JAISHANKAR

of Actual Control (LAC), which began in May 2020. Bilateral relations are yet to recover from the fallout of a brutal clash at Galwan Valley in June last year that resulted in the death of 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops. Both sides have deployed some 50,000 troops each in the sector and several rounds of diplomatic and military talks have not led to disengagement at all the friction points.

Jaishankar said: “And as we have made clear – the state of the relationship, at the end of the day, will reflect the state of the border. You can’t have a tense, high friction border and have great relations in all other parts of life. It doesn’t work that way.”

It was inevitable that the standoff had “already spilt over into other domains and the expectation that somehow we will contain it in a narrow sense and carry on with the rest of life, I think, is not a realistic one”, he added.

“We do have a significant issue there for us and also for them because I frankly don’t think it’s in the interest of either country that our relationship goes off in this direction,” Jaishankar said in a session moder

National security trumps all

In terms of issues, Jaishankar put national security above diplomacy concerns, as the stakes are very high. He contended that the country had “sometimes got confused” on these issues, such as during the 1960s, when the leadership didn’t put the necessary emphasis on security.

He listed the two other priorities in terms of issues as economic development and national progress, where India could learn from East and Southeast Asia on using foreign policy to acquire capital and technology, and advancing the standing of the country.

While speaking about the situation in Afghanistan, Jaishankar said UN Security Council resolution 2593 was an “expression of a widespread concern in the world on a set of issues, the most prominent of which was would Afghan soil be used by terrorists [and] foreign fighters to target other countries”.

The resolution also addresses issues such as the nature of the regime in Kabul and whether it would be inclusive, and the nature of governance, including the treatment of women, children and minorities, and freedom of movement for Afghans.

“I would say a lot of those concerns...remain live concerns,” Jaishankar said. The situation on the ground is complicated, and justifies the prudence that India

Quad a sign of changing times

Jaishankar also indicated that the LAC standoff with China was not a “causal factor” for India’s participation in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or Quad, which includes Australia, Japan and the US. He noted the Quad in its current incarnation started in September 2017, where the current difficulties on LAC began in 2020.

It is important for India as a Quad participant “to be very clear that the Quad is for something, it is not against somebody”, he pointed out. Quad’s efforts are focused on issues such as Covid-19 vaccines, developing more trusted and secure technologies, promoting reliable and resilient supply chains, connectivity projects, and ensuring maritime security and safety.

Since no single country can respond to the contemporary big challenges, groups of countries with similar interests and concerns were coming together, he said. In this context, he referred to India’s four-way cooperation with the United Arab Emirates, Israel and the US.

These are “combos of countries” that are not interested in a formal relationship and wanting no “detailed obligations or responsibilities”. Instead, they want a practical arrangement to work together to their mutual advantage through “ad hoc, open minded, open ended and comfortable” mechanisms, Jaishankar said.

Asked about India’s participation in The Summit of Democracy to be hosted by the US during December 9-10, Jaishankar said he is “very confident” about the state of Indian democracy since elections and the electoral process are not in doubt, popular participation in elections is rising, and all indexes of “how democratised India has become” are growing.

“In a way, in the very success lies a problem because to a large extent it has brought to the political forefront a different set of players, people who are not from big cities or from English medium schools,” he said, adding many of these players are self-made and this has led to a “political argumentation between the old order and emerging order within the country”.

“Because the world is globalised, the world is polarised and the world is very ideological, a lot of this translates into people being judgemental [and saying] your democracy is not working well, largely because it’s not about people like us anymore,” he said.