Strong alliances do not enhance India's global standing, loose associations favourable, says Jaishankar in South Korea

Strong alliances do not enhance India's global standing, loose associations favourable, says Jaishankar in S. Korea

Seoul: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday said strong alliances do not enhance a country's global standing while, on the contrary, India had a favourable result from loose or issue-based alliances.

"Today, we see India in many ways as playing a useful role as a kind of bridging country which can contribute and address problems. And I think unfortunately the state of the world requires such services," the minister said in response to a question following his address to the Korea National Diplomatic Academy here.

Jaishankar's address was a part of the first leg of his four-day visit to South Korea and Japan.

"I don't agree that strong alliances enhance global standing and lose alliances detract. At the beginning of our presidency of the G20, people were worried whether we would be able to get an agreement at the end of it and we had two problems — the Ukraine conflict and the issue of development. A lot of Global South had concerns. We have different ties to one group, I think it would have been difficult to get the G20 to come around had it not been such a case," the minister said.

The minister said India's objective was to be a 'Vishwamitra' — being a friend of the world, making as many relationships and even friendships as possible.

"I think if you like the world, you have more like-minded countries. So we like the world. We look at different parts of the world and the instinct for us is to find something common there," Jaishankar said.

"If you want to have the optimal existence, you want to be on good terms with as many countries. Ideally, they say the best diplomacy is a zero-problem situation. Now, in real life, nobody gets a zero-problem outcome," he stated. "But if you can minimise the number of problems, you can find more and more points of commonality with countries and if you take very measured and balanced positions then you can make your position known but in a way in which you have also kept further options open," he added, clarifying India's stand when forging issue-based alliances.

Talking about South Korea's increasing commitment to contributing more to maritime security in the Indo-Pacific region, the minister said it would be useful for India and Korea to cooperate more closely in maritime security, both bilaterally as well as in some agreed format.

Speaking about the threat to shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, the minister said India had deployed 12 warships in that region and the Indian Navy was actively encouraging shipping in the region.

"This is possible because while we have our 12 ships, many other navies are operating. We have a mechanism for coordination so that people not just don't get in each other's way, but can optimise the result because the problem we face is a common problem," he said.

He said he would encourage his Korean partners to get into arrangements where there are commonalities because none of the countries had the resources to ensure security and safety beyond a point.

"If we want the entire region, the Indo-Pacific, all the way from your shores to our shores and beyond to be safe then we are better off pooling and working together," the minister said.

The minister proposed that Korea join the fusion centre outside Delhi where several countries have deputed officers and share information from wide shipping agreements and get the benefit of it or participate in the Indo-Pacific Oceans initiative on issues such as environment, plastic, transportation and connectivity.

"In such formats, even our relationship will get the benefit of working together. Whenever I've looked at a group of which we've been a member, our bilateral relationship has improved as a result of being a member of that group," he said.

The minister said economic security depends on country to country and the situation.

"Today, there's so much talk about semiconductors and chips because in a way they are the basis of our daily lives. Here it is security because without it we are inefficient," he said.

Jaishankar said Covid-19 has questioned the old model of globalisation which had begun in the 1990s and continued until Covid struck nations across the world.

"Europe today, which was the most fervent advocate of globalisation, is very much obsessed with strategic autonomy. For them, strategic autonomy is economic autonomy," he said, adding that India and Korea could work together and make a difference in the world in technologies such as semiconductors, chips and renewables.

He said India through its production-linked incentives scheme was compensating companies who were making new investments and significantly raising national capacities to increase manufacturing in the country.

"A big lesson from the Covid was to de-risk the global economy. We were doing it more defensively before we are doing it more confidently," Jaishankar said.

Earlier in the day, after reaching Seoul, the External Affairs Minister called on South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo among other things. He will be co-chairing the 10th India-South Korea Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) with his counterpart Cho Tae-yul on Wednesday.