External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said the US is increasingly balancing multiple relationships, reflecting a shift towards a multipolar world…reports Asian Lite News Desk
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said the United States is increasingly balancing relationships with multiple countries in a way that resembles India’s long-standing policy of strategic autonomy.
Speaking at an event in New York on Monday, Jaishankar said Washington was now managing relationships with China, Russia, Ukraine, Europe and other parts of Asia simultaneously.
“Pretty much what people used to say about us, Washington is today practising with a great deal of gusto,” he said.
Jaishankar was speaking in conversation with Daniel Russel, a former US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. Russel referred to India’s approach to strategic autonomy using the US expression of “chewing gum and walking at the same time”.
Picking up the metaphor, Jaishankar joked: “I think that piece of gum is in pretty big supply in Washington”, referring to the different relationships and sometimes competing interests that the US is managing under President Donald Trump.
“Once Washington takes the lead on that, it becomes, in a way, a kind of a global question. That’s the reality,” he said.
Jaishankar recalled that there was previously pressure on countries such as India to avoid maintaining too many strategic options and instead focus their relationships on the US.
“There was a time when, I would say, the narrative was, ‘You know we don’t like you having too many options because we want … you to focus your relationship on us’,” he said.
He added that the US itself had traditionally maintained multiple options because of its position as a global power.
“Today the pretence has dropped for everybody. Everybody is openly dealing with everybody else,” Jaishankar said.
According to the minister, the shift is contributing to the emergence of a more multipolar international system, in which countries increasingly pursue relationships based on their own interests.
“And that is how we are heading towards a multipolar world,” he said.
Continuing the metaphor, Jaishankar added: “Everybody is going to be chewing it.”
He said countries would increasingly seek the best possible outcomes from individual situations based on a sharper definition of their national interests.
“And everybody is actually going to get the best deal that they can out of a given situation from a much more a sharper definition of their interest,” he said.
