India’s foreign policy is not sitting on the fence, just because its policy may not be agreeable to some other countries, External affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Thursday, taking part at GLOBESEC.
The statement came as the foreign minister was asked about New Delhi’s stance on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and whether India can afford to be sitting on the fence as an emerging world leader.
“I am not sitting on the fence just because I don’t agree with you. It means I am sitting on my ground,”–S Jaishankar.
“This idea that I do a transaction that I come in one conflict because it will help in conflict 2- that’s not how the world works. A lot of our problems in China have nothing to do with Ukraine or Russia. They are predated,” Jaishankar said.
There are a lot of issues where Europe did not speak, the foreign minister said. “Europe has to get out of the mindset that Europe’s problem is the world’s problem but the world’s problem is not Europe’s problem,” the foreign minister said adding, “Today linkages being made between China & India and what’s happening in Ukraine. Common guys, China and India happened way before Ukraine. I do not see this as a clever argument.”
