EAM JaishankarMumbai: Indian Foreign Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar asserted that India is not among the countries nervous about Donald Trump’s return to the White House and underlined that the emerging trend is more diverse and focuses on a multipolar world. S. Jaishankar said that while many countries are nervous about the US, India is not one of them after Donald Trump’s return as president. Trump won 312 electoral votes, compared to his Democratic rival Kamala Harris’ 226 votes, marking a clean slate in the US elections.
There is a trend toward a more diverse, multipolar world, but older, industrialized economies have not disappeared and remain important investment targets, Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar said in a speech in Mumbai on Sunday.
“Yes, there is a shift. We ourselves are an example of the shift… if you look at our economic weight, you look at our economic rankings, you even look at Indian companies, their reach, their presence, Indian professionals, which I was talking about. So there is no question of a rebalancing,” S Jaishankar said in response to a question on the reset of global power dynamics taking place amid the shift in the balance of power from the West to the East.
“And in my opinion it was inevitable,” he said, adding, “because as soon as these countries got their independence after the colonial period, they started making their own policy choices, and then they definitely had to grow.”
“The part that’s not inevitable is that some grew faster, some grew slower, some better, and that’s where the quality of governance and the quality of leadership came into play. So in a sense there is the constant and the variable.”
“There’s a trend toward a more diverse, multipolar world. But there’s also a period where countries are really moving forward. I mean, it’s just like anything that’s happened in the business world.”
However, he said the industrialized economies in the West cannot be ignored and remain important investment targets.
“But remember one thing: the older, the Western economies, the older industrialized economies, they have not disappeared. They still count, they are still the most important investment goals. They are large markets, strong technology centers, hubs for innovation. So let’s acknowledge the shift, but let’s not get carried away and overdo it a little and distort our own understanding of the world,” the minister said.
‘PM Modi was one of the first three calls’
Speaking about the India-US relationship and Trump’s historic victory, he said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi was, I think, one of the first three calls that President (elect) Trump took. India and Prime Minister Modi have built a good rapport with multiple presidents,” he said.
“For him (Prime Minister Modi), there is something natural in the way he builds those relationships. So that helped a lot. And I think the changes in India have helped too,” he said when asked how he sees the outcome of the US presidential election. This has an impact on India-US ties, especially given Prime Minister Modi’s strong personal bond with the newly elected US President.
“I know a lot of countries are nervous about the US these days, let’s be honest about that. We are not one of them,” claimed S Jaishankar.
(With PTI inputs)
