India’s stature in the world has risen in last 5 years: S Jaishankar

Union External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Thursday said that a large majority of people in India had recognised that the country’s stature in the world had risen in the last five years under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Speaking at an event in the national capital, Jaishankar showered praises on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA government, saying the “government has kept alive and perhaps even strengthened expectations of change in India”.

According to the newly-appointed External Affairs Minister the world in witnessing a “global rebalancing”, of which the “sharpest manifestation is rise of China and to an extent, rise of India as well”.

Talking on the topic of changing world and changing India, Jaishankar said, “The changes are very sharp, very discontinuous, very much more complex than they have been in the past…the most obvious one is that globalisation is under stress.”

#WATCH EAM S. Jaishankar speaks at an event in Delhi. https://t.co/WDslMBn5l2 — ANI (@ANI) June 6, 2019

The foreign minister further opined that the second major change across the world in “growth of nationalism” and that it has been “validated electorally” in many places.

“At some level each is different in different parts of the world, but somewhere there is a message out there…the nationalism in Asia is the nationalism of confidence, the nationalism in other places is nationalism of insecurity,” said the External Affairs Minister.

He added, “The global balancing is driving the nationalism, and the nationalism is driving the stress on globalisation. The picture is very much complicated than it was five years ago”.

On the issue of changing India, Jaishankar said that “a short answer would be, look at the election result”.

“People have analysed what it is about...bringing change and giving hope to people at the lowest income level has profound impact…but look at the younger lot, the demographics and aspiration, those also have an impact,” he added.

Referring to the challenges ahead of the foreign ministry, Jaishankar said that the big responsibility of his ministry is to focus on project execution which has strategic significance.

(With Agency Inputs)