India matters more in current polarised world: EAM Jaishankar

The External Affairs Minister said that at a time when normal diplomacy is not working that well, India has an ability to communicate and find touch points with different countries and regions

New York: India matters more in the current polarised world and is perceived widely as the voice of the global South, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said, asserting that New Delhi always speaks for many developing nations and highlights their pressing problems at international forums.

There’s no question this UNGA reflects the state of the world, which is particularly polarised at this moment. What the state of the world actually reveals in a way is that India matters more. We are a bridge, we are a voice, we are a viewpoint, a channel,” Jaishankar told a group of Indian reporters here as he highlighted some of the big takeaways of his week-long visit to the UN and the city. He will head to Washington DC on Sunday for the second leg of his US visit.

Jaishankar said that at a time when normal diplomacy is not working that well, India has so many relationships, such as an ability to communicate and find touch points with different countries and regions. India is today “perceived very widely” as the voice of the global South, Jaishankar said, adding that there is a huge crisis right now in the world economy where the cost of food and fuel, worry about fertilizers, the debt situation have created very deep anxieties for many countries.

“There is great frustration that these issues are not being heard. They are not being voiced. They are not going up the chain in the global councils,” he said, adding that if there is anybody at all who is speaking up and voicing these sentiments, it is India and that New Delhi speaks for many of the developing nations. “I am concluding this week with the sense that India really matters more in this polarised world and much of that is also due to the Prime Minister’s leadership, his image, what he has done on the global stage,” he said.