New Delhi: External affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday that the World order is outdated and global rules need to evolve to reflect today’s realities. Addressing an event at the national capital, the former diplomat said that the world order is on the threshold of change and challenges may arise.
“India won’t go around singing paeans to the world if challenges do arise. There was a ‘great’ world order and everybody obeyed it. However, it was their (West) myth. Look at it from the point of other countries. Where was the world order when people in Africa, Asia and Latin America were not getting vaccines? Where was the world order when travel restrictions were placed on them,” Jaishankar said.
“We should be very careful buying into this narrative in the first place, that everything was orderly and nice and now somewhere somebody is coming with a wrecking ball,” he added.
Jaishankar was clearly referring to the situation during the pandemic when higher-income countries got access to Covid-19 vaccines and lower-income countries were left to fend for themselves. According to him, the world has faced several very big problems in the past but countries did not have the courage to stand up and call them out.
The EAM was clearly underscoring the importance of India’s Global South vision that aims to bring about a change in the world order through the effort of countries in Asia, Africa and South America. The idea is to turn leaders, instead of remaining followers.
“We were one of the few who said that world has to agree on what connectivity is. One country cannot decide what should be connected, but look at the rest of the world and how many of them spoke up,” he said.
Highlighting the importance of a more equitable world order, Jaishankar said that change is on its way. “Whether the change is good or bad in terms of opportunities and challenges, time will tell. But you won’t see me going around singing paeans to the world that we have somehow lost. That is not the case,” he added.
