US ‘is Adjusting to A Multipolar World’, Says Jaishankar – News18

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said that the United States “is adjusting to a multipolar world” although it may not use that term.

The United States is actively seeking to shape what would be the poles and what would be the weight of the poles and the manner in which it would benefit the US, Jaishankar said during a conversation at the Council on Foreign Relations here on Tuesday.

His remarks came ahead of his visit to Washington from September 27 to 30 for bilateral meetings with US interlocutors. Jaishankar’s programme includes discussions with his counterpart Antony Blinken, senior members of the Biden administration, US business leaders and think tanks.

The minister said as the world has become more democratic and opportunities are available more universally, “then it’s natural that other centres of production and consumption would come about and there would be a redistribution of power in the world and that has happened”.

Jaishankar said while the United States may not use that term, it “is adjusting to a multipolar world”.

“Part of it is the long-term consequences of Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s only one part of it. It’s also if you look at the dominance of the United States in the world and its relative power vis-a-vis others, that has also changed in the last decade,” he said, describing it as logical.

“Probably”, the minister said, “we’ve already entered that world where the US is no longer in a way saying that ‘I basically work only with my allies.” The Quad — comprising India, Japan, Australia and the US — is a demonstration of that, he said.

In the Quad grouping, India is not an allied country, while Australia and Japan are treaty-based allies, Jaishankar said.

The minister also said there is a recognition of enormous possibilities for the roles that India and the US can play in enhancing each other’s interests.

“If the US looks at the world and says what is the competition and where are the partners — real or potential, and we do the same, I think you will find that the convergences today far outweigh the divergences,” he said.

“Now, where India and the US are concerned, if you look today at the role that we could play in enhancing each other’s interests, I think there’s a recognition that this has enormous possibilities,” Jaishankar said in response to a question on what he sees are the limits of the US-India partnership.

“For me, I’m really no longer prepared to think of it as where are the limits. I would say really, where are the opportunities and how much can we step on the gas? How much can we take it forward,” he said.

Jaishankar said in the last five years alone, the security and political relationships between India and the US have changed.

Today the India-US relationship has to focus “very, very strongly” on technology, he said.

In many ways, the balance of power in the world has always been a function of the balance of technology, but it is even more intense today and the impact of technology on people’s everyday lives is very sweeping, Jaishankar said.

Today there is a very “compelling need” for India and the United States to work together and “most of all, that is focused on technology. A big part of it, I would say, would also be a spillover into defence and security. A third part of it would actually be politics”, he said.

Referring to the North-South divide, Jaishankar said today the Global South is very distrustful of the Global North, the developed countries since they have had a very hard time during the pandemic.

“So it’s useful for the US to have partners who frankly think well of the US and speak well of the US often behind your back,” he said.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)