For the first time ever in Indian history, a former Foreign Secretary was directly awarded the position of Minister of External Affairs, and his name was Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. He is an Indian Foreign Service Officer from the batch of 1977. Previously, he served as an Indian ambassador to China from 2009 to 2013 and to the US from 2014 to 2015. Jaishankar played an important role in the nuclear agreement between India and the US and its negotiation. Currently, he is a part of the Narendra Modi government and has been the longest-serving foreign secretary.
He was awarded the prestigious Padma Shri in 2019. His role as the Minister of External Affairs can be considered one of the most significant developments for the country. One factor that makes Jaishankar stand out from the previous diplomats is that he has always been a confidant of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, even before joining the Cabinet. Narendra Modi considered Jaishankar his crisis manager and wanted Jaishankar to accompany him on his trips abroad. What sets Jaishankar apart from the rest of the cabinet ministers is that he was not built as a politician. Usually, all the members of the Cabinet are politicians, especially for important portfolios like finance, home, and foreign affairs.
With the world facing several issues due to leaders like China’s Prime Minister Xi Jinping and damaged international relations with the previous US President Donald Trump, Modi has secured Jaishankar, who has been a great analyst of international relations and holds a great understanding of his vision for India globally.
Let’s further understand the role of Jaishankar as a part of the Government of India. Since he has served as the Indian Ambassador to the US, he can help cultivate good relations with the superpower nation. One can also consider him to be close to China. He is already being seen as promoting better Sino-Indian relations. The organisation and planning of the informal Wuhan summit between Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi was Jaishankar’s idea.
Other than making an effort to maintain peace on the border between China and India and reduce the trade deficit, he has made several efforts to stop China from providing support to Pakistan. He has also made attempts to dissuade them from creating obstacles for India’s membership in the Security Council of the UN and the Nuclear Supplies Group (NSG).
Jaishankar aimed to bring more focus to the broader picture of the nation by correcting all the issues of the present to make sure the future is secure. Keeping everything aside, he has always been ready to take risks and does not care about his personal image in order to achieve goals for India. One of the major highlights of Jaishankar’s work as the Foreign Minister was the ASEAN-India summit.
This summit saw the presence of all 10 leaders of ASEAN at India’s Republic Day parade in 2018. Another obstacle faced by Jaishankar was the Doklam standoff between India and China, which took place in 2017. This crisis came to an end when Jaishankar himself had conversations with Chinese officials without the help of the Chinese ambassador. Finally, China released an official statement saying that it would not be building road(s) in the Doklam area.
As the Minister of External Affairs, his main challenge was dealing with the trade dispute between the US and India. The reason behind this was that the US would very soon put an end to preferential trade treatment for our nation. Along with this, Jaishankar also had to find a way to secure our country’s needs for energy and manage the relationship with the US for buying oil from Iran, which had been hit by sanctions.
In his book, The India Way – Strategies for an Uncertain World, Jaishankar stated, “India needs a policy which focuses majorly on national security.” According to him, the US should not affect our country’s relations with Russia, and Russia should not affect our relations with the US. He thinks that it is not necessary for India to choose sides since the world is now multipolar. Due to his experience in various fields, Jaishankar can oversee both factors: foreign policy and the problems related to visas. S Jaishankar has made a huge impact on the nation’s foreign policy. His work will be accounted for several upcoming years.
Written by Vidhi Dugar
Edited by Madiha Tariq