External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Sunday highlighted the changing dynamics of global geopolitics, which he said were marked by the US “deliberately becoming a lonelier power” and China rising on the world stage, as he stressed the need for middle powers to deepen cooperation and push for self-reliance.
A repositioning, which is a posture of choice, and, in a way, it has deliberately become a lonelier power. “What unites the emerging and middle powers, is a growing self-awareness of their interest. “It’s a term, ‘Atmanirbhar’, very much in vogue in India as well.
The second feature of the landscape is, of course, the rise of China,” he said at the Munich Leaders Meeting in New Delhi. In his address, the minister also laid out a road map for India’s economic growth, touched upon AI’s use and said the FTA with the EU will have “cascading impact” on overall relations. Jaishankar emphasised that emerging and middle powers were reassessing their roles, and instead of seeking strict alignment or waiting for full ideological consensus, they were focusing on self-reliance, a concept central to India’s own “Aatmanirbhar” vision. During the Brics summit, PM Narendra Modi had said that the grouping must chart the course of global reform to ensure that the Global South has a greater say in decision-making and the existing “pyramid of privilege” in global governance makes way for a “platform of partnership”. All of them, in a way, are becoming more self-reliant,” Jaishankar said.
“…The landscape today is primarily marked by a radical repositioning of the United States. Many of them today are driven by this calculation,” he added.
Highlighting the potential of a trade deal, Jaishankar argued that an FTA with the EU would catalyse alignment across the board.
“People perceive AI also as something which must become accessible, affordable, and used for a certain socio-economic purpose…,” he said. Commerce ministry officials last month told HT that India has secured favourable deals in advance for its steel, fisheries and shipping sectors from the EU as the two sides looked on course to sign the “mother of all FTAs” by December and operationalise it early next year.
