Dubai: India has not only shown an ability to progress at home but also displayed during its G20 presidency that it has the capability of getting the world to agree on something of common interest at a very difficult and very divisive moment, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said Saturday.
Jaishankar’s remarks came during his interaction with Indian students and young professionals in Dubai and shared perspectives on transformations in India and the impact it is having on the everyday lives of Indians at home and abroad.
Jaishankar said students and young professionals will be at the forefront of building a Viksit Bharat in Amritkaal.
Talking about India’s progress Jaishankar said India has just completed its presidency of the G20.
“And in this presidency, what had happened was that, because of the geopolitics, the whole controversy around Ukraine, there was a lot of concern, whether we will be able to get everybody together,” the minister said.
At the same time, he said there was also worry that the real agenda of the G20 which was helping growth development, especially helping countries of the developing world may be sidetracked.
“So again, we today have not only shown an ability to progress at home, but we have shown also that India is capable of getting the world, at a very difficult, very divisive moment, around the table to agree on something common, you know something which is in our common interest. And that too, is something which says a lot about India,” Jaishankar said.
India hosted leaders of the world’s biggest economies, including US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov among others, for the G20 Leaders’ Summit on September 9 and 10 in the Indian capital Delhi.
As G20 President, India pulled off a big diplomatic win with the adoption of the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration at the summit, overcoming major differences in the Russia-Ukraine war.
“When we speak about ‘Viksit Bharat’, when we speak about ‘New India’, when you hear about all these slogans, you may or may not be beneficiaries, a lot of benefits of these are going to people who actually need it. But there is another aspect to this and that aspect of the change is the Moon mission; the fastest rollout of 5G technology is happening in India. So, when you look at CoWIN or Covaxin, when you look at the 5G, when you look at the Chandrayaan, this is also ‘Viksit Bharat’ in the making,” Jaishankar said.
He said it is important for young people, especially those who live and study abroad to talk about what is happening in India as their influence is not just limited to their immediate group of family but also to others they meet and shape their thinking about India.
PTI