The greater India's economic weight & political influence, the better it is for the world: EAM Jaishankar

Growth in India's economic weight and political influence is better not just for India but also for the rest of the world, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said. He was responding to a question on China's rise and increasing power projection posing a major challenge to the Indo-Pacific region during an interview with leading Austrian news publication Die Presse (The Press) on Tuesday. "The more India grows, the greater our economic weight and political influence becomes, the better it is not only for us but also for the world. Not only the world order, but also Asia must become multipolar. No region will be stable if it is dominated by a single power. The essence of international relations is for states to get along and find a balance," he explained. Responding to another question in India's role on the world stage, EAM Jaishankar said that when a country grows economically, demographically and technologically, its interests and the responsibilities that go with them broaden. He pointed out that India was now the world's fifth largest economy. "Around 2028, we will probably have overtaken Germany and Japan to rank third behind China and the United States. Last year, our global exports exceeded $400 billion for the first time. India has become a major foreign investor. All of this will reflect on foreign policy," he noted. 'WE ARE LIVING IN DANGEROUS TIMES' Asked how the plate tectonic shift in the global power structure could be managed, EAM Jaishankar said, "We are already living in dangerous times. This transition to the new world order will take a long time. For the change is great". According to him, the Americans have been the quickest to grasp that they need to reposition themselves and seek cooperation with countries like India. "The Europeans needed a wake-up call to understand that it is not always others who take care of the difficult aspects of life," he added. EAM Jaishankar went on to say that this realization started even before the Ukraine conflict. "When Europeans started talking about an Indo-Pacific strategy, it was clear to me that they no longer wanted to be mere spectators of developments in other parts of the world," he pointed out. In response to a question on why India did not back the resolution in which the majority of UN members denounced the invasion of Ukraine, EAM Jaishankar stated that each state evaluates events in accordance with its location, interests, and history. Additionally, he questioned if all UN members had always upheld the UN Charter and never sent troops to another nation. In response to the question on India's potential involvement as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine, EAM Jaishankar stated, "If we can help, we stand ready. And we have already helped - very quietly on the grain deal, for example. We also tried to defuse the situation around the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant."