India's growing weight will ensure overall global balance remains in favour of freedom, openness: Jaishankar
India's growing weight will ensure that the overall balance in the world order remains in favour of freedom, openness, transparency and a rules-based order, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Friday. In a virtual address at the Nikkei Asia Future of Asia Forum, he said the challenge of supply chain and the use of economic coercion by states have put a premium on resilience, in comments that came amid China's attempt to become an economic hegemon.
Jaishankar said the world is undergoing a flux, driven by geopolitical, geo-economic and geo-technological developments and that the global order today is visibly under stress, with Asia and the Indo-Pacific very much part of this transformation.
«But it is not just change we are seeing; there is also much greater risk-taking. It is visible in the conflict in Ukraine, in violence in the Middle East and the disregard for international law and agreements in Asia and the Indo-Pacific,» he said.
This has economic facets, perhaps even more concerning. The supply chain challenge, over-concentrations stemming from globalization and the use of economic coercion by states have put a premium on resilience and redundancy," he said.
The minister said equally important is the technology challenge that has created a new level of inter-penetration and interdependence. «As a result, the era of AI, EVs (electric vehicles), green and clean technologies have brought both hope and anxiety in equal measure.
»As both market shares and data harnessing are leveraged, national
