India’s new External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar believes that India’s global stature has grown significantly in the last five years.
Speaking at an event held in New Delhi yesterday, Jaishankar said that a “global rebalancing” is taking place, the “sharpest manifestation” of which is the rise of China and to an extent, India as well.
He added that people now feel that the country is making great strides towards development and the world respects India. "The sense that the country is on the move and the world looks at us very differently is where foreign policy has made a difference in the last five years," he said. The minister believes the government has kept alive and maybe even strengthened expectations of change in the country.
Jaishankar, who served as foreign secretary from 2015-2018, said that “there is a big responsibility on the External Affairs Ministry to focus on project execution which has strategic significance.”
Jaishankar is a career diplomat, who was given charge of the Ministry of External Affairs last week in the newly formed cabinet of PM Modi’s government.
