Finance
New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for India’s changed attitude at international fora, a reason for India finding its place at the high table of diplomacy.
In an interview with ANI, he said, “It is a different world, a different India. It is a different Prime Minister. It is a different government. And that is why you have all that you haven’t seen in the past.”
Speaking on India taking up the voice of the Global South to G20, the minister said that no other presidency had aimed at getting developing countries together.
“No other G-20 presidency has tried to get together developing countries who are not on the table and say–please come, sit with us, tell us what are your concerns. And we will distil those concerns and place them before the G-20. That is a unique exercise,” the foreign affairs minister said.
Mr Jaishankar said that India has a special responsibility in this changing world scenario.
“I see it more for India as a responsibility, that we have the responsibility today in a very difficult world. How do you bring people together? How do you make everybody understand that we all have a bigger responsibility and therefore please, can we kind of get our act together here and do what is right by the world,” he said.
The External Affairs minister said he hoped that the G20 nations would understand their responsibilities to other countries.
“India has a reputation of being a constructive player. Someone who bridges, divides, who kind of somewhere helps to fix problems. I am confident that every one of the G20 coming to Delhi will understand the responsibility that they bear. That the other 180 countries of the world are looking to them to set directions and that they cannot afford to fail them,” he said.
The minister said that the participation of every citizen of the country in some way in the summit was assuring.
“One of the big pluses of the G20 is really how much more interested the people of India, especially the young people of India have got foreign policy and they need it because look, this is a globalized era,” he said.
Asked about the possibility of the G20 summit being overshadowed by the presence of the American President, the minister assured that everything would go smoothly.
“We are India. We know how to handle the world. Believe me, especially in the last ten years we have shown how we can handle the world,” Mr Jaishankar said.
