EAM S Jaishankar acknowledges that India has a distinct PoV at Globsec 2022 forum

S Jaishankar's response at the Globsec 2022 forum in Bratislava, Slovakia, last week signals the need for a new global engagement for India. It must be proactive and rooted in the rules-based international order and democracy that recognises the importance of multipolarity and respects national interests and regional considerations.

Europe cannot act as if the world ends at its borders, and its relationships beyond must not be seen through binaries and transactional lenses. The foreign minister is right that as home to one-sixth of humanity, and the fifth-largest economy, India will have a perspective, and articulation.




This is not a pushback by an increasingly confident India reiterating non-alignment. That record is on heavy rotation anyway. It is a reminder that while national or regional considerations are important, protecting the rules-based international order requires giving due consideration to problems arising beyond our boundaries, as the latest episode of 'placating' Gulf countries also underlines.

Hence, Jaishankar's stressing on the need to acknowledge that India has a distinct PoV. Countries need to accept that a multipolar world based on shared interests requires an engagement that acknowledges different articulation on issues. The minister's response on expectation of Western support against China encapsulates this view.

India, too, must take Jaishankar's words seriously. For too long, the foreign policy establishment has treated multipolarity as synonymous with non-alignment and India has come across as too self-serving in a self-limiting way. As India seeks a global role, it too must demonstrate its willingness to consider others' realities, that along with shared values will form the basis of real partnerships.