- Thursday, February 27, 2025
Speaking with Akashvani, India’s national public radio broadcaster, the diplomat said India had ideological reason to sacrifice its own interest.
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIAN external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has said that the Narendra Modi government always works with the world while putting the nation’s interests at its core.
Speaking with Akashvani, India’s national public radio broadcaster, in an exclusive interview on Saturday (12), he focused on India’s shift from the non-alignment era to an approach which is more assertive and driven by interest in the current globalised landscape.
He said India is more active and visible now and shaping the big issues and ideas of its times. Jaishankar added that the country is more nationalistic and international at the same time. He also said India today is unlike what it was in the past when it put its own interest behind some other country because of some ideological reason.
Acknowledging the historical significance of India’s non-alignment policy of the past by calling it as a manifestation of New Delhi’s assertion of independence during a time when its capabilities were not much, the diplomat said the policy represented a distinctive era in New Delhi’s foreign policy but also had its limitations.
“[It] was an era where our capabilities were limited and also where we did not always put our national interest first. Sometimes, we did not get the gains that we could have. But that is in the past,” Jaishankar was quoted as saying.
He also spoke about the challenges that India faced during the 1990s, a period when the country witnessed significant economic reforms, saying they made a recalibration of India’s foreign policy necessary, recognising
Pointing to the challenges faced during the 1990s, a period marked by significant economic reforms, Jaishankar said these reforms necessitated a recalibration of India’s foreign policy, recognizing the inseparable link between economic and diplomatic strategies.
“We not only had to change our economic policy but also our foreign policy because both go together,” he said.
Jaishankar then went on to say that India today is in a different era when the country is “more capable, more confident, more ambitious” and it thinks that it can make a big difference.
He attributed a significant part of the transformative shift to the leadership of prime minister Modi and praised his understanding of New Delhi’ role on the international stage and adeptness in leveraging technology.
