Asia is experiencing rising tensions both on land and at sea due to the violation of agreements and the disregard for the rule of law, stated External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday. Additionally, those who have historically supported terrorism are now finding themselves consumed by it, he added. His remarks also came at a time when China continues to amass its military along the eastern Ladakh frontier and Pakistan supports the cross-border terrorist activities.
Addressing an event organized by CII, Jaishankar also referred to currency power and use of sanctions as tools in global diplomacy. This discussion followed recent warnings from the US about potential punitive measures after India and Iran finalized a deal concerning the Chabahar port.
Jaishankar thoroughly examined the impacts of the Ukraine conflict, the escalation of violence in West Asia, and the disruption of logistics due to geopolitical tensions, sanctions, drone attacks in the Red Sea, and climate events.
“The world is experiencing a 3F crisis of fuel, food and fertilisers. In Asia, new tensions have emerged in land and sea as agreements are dishonoured and rule of law disregarded,” he said.
“Terrorism and extremism have started to consume those who have long practised it. In many ways, we are actually going through the perfect storm,” he added.
“For India, the task is to mitigate its impact on itself and contribute to stabilising the world to the extent possible. It is this judicious combination of ‘Bharat First’ and ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ that defines our image as ‘Vishwa Bandhu’,” Jaishankar said.
Without naming China, Jaishankar flagged concerns over “weaponisation” of economic activity and how access to raw materials or even stability of tourism are being utilised to exert political pressure.
“A different dimension of the concerns that we harbour is one emanating from a combination of excessive market shares, financial domination and technology tracking,” he said.
“Between them, they have actually allowed for the weaponisation of virtually any form of economic activity. We have seen how both exports and imports, access to raw materials or even stability of tourism has been utilized to exert political pressure,” he said.
“At the same time, the power of currency and the threat of sanctions have been deployed in the toolbox of international diplomacy,” he said.
