Mumbai: India is engaging with international partners more intensively from a position of strength, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday said, citing recent trade deals, and asserted that the “reform express” will keep moving forward.
Speaking at the Global Economic Cooperation conference here, Jaishankar also said the world is witnessing the weaponisation of production, finance, leveraging of market shares and tightening of export controls. To add to all of these, there are now uncertainties on the demand side due to the application of bilateral tariffs, he noted.
Long-standing assumptions and expectations have now become questionable, the minister pointed out.
Key dimensions are transforming simultaneously, be it strategic, political, economic or technological. Solutions lie in derisking and diversifying across multiple domains. This approach is increasingly visible in the policy of nations, the EAM said.
Jaishankar stressed that the “reform express” will continue to roll on.
“From a position of strength, India is engaging international partners more intensively. This is demonstrated in the recently concluded trade deals,” he said.
Economic security is best served through stronger self-reliance and more trusted partners, the minister added.
Following a phone conversation between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump, both sides recently announced a reduction of US tariffs on Indian goods to 18 per cent from 50 per cent.
However, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, has alleged that the government “sold Bharat Mata” through the trade deal with the US and that it was a “wholesale surrender” with India’s energy security handed over to America and farmers’ interests compromised.
Last month, India and the European Union (EU) concluded negotiations for the proposed free trade agreement (FTA), which will help boost two-way commerce and strengthen economic ties between the two sides. Over the last year, India has also finalised trade deals with the UK, New Zealand and Oman.
Jaishankar said the world has entered a volatile and uncertain era, possibly the most turbulent in living memory.
“The established global order is clearly changing. Replacements are hard to create and we appear to be headed to a long twilight zone. This will be messy, risky, unpredictable, perhaps even dangerous,” he added.
India will also be more salient in the global calculus of production, on services, technology, skills and knowledge, Jaishankar emphasised.
Economics will give way to politics and to security when it comes to making choices and technology in the age of AI (Artificial Intelligence), he noted.
Jaishankar further said the US is determined to reindustrialise at any cost, and this is central to its tech future. China’s manufacturing and export focus continues unabated and may even expand, he added.
Technology competition is intensifying and polarising. Energy trade flows are being significantly redefined. New mindsets are encouraging greater risk-taking, including through military means. Migration and even mobility are getting contentious, he pointed out.
“Each nation and each society will respond as per their interests and calculations,” Jaishankar said.
