Top quotes of S Jaishankar at RNG Lecture: From Kashmir to RCEP to what he said on Pakistan

An approach that takes risks as well as hedges, injects greater realism in policy, reads the global tea leaves right — and is willing to look beyond dogma and enter the real world of convergences. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spelt out the government’s approach to foreign policy in his first major speech in New Delhi Thursday.

Delivering the fourth Ramnath Goenka Memorial Lecture, on the topic “Beyond the Delhi Dogma: Indian Foreign Policy in a Changing World”, Jaishankar provided an assessment of the last 70 years of India’s foreign policy choices and challenged past positions — from dealing with China on boundary issues and handling Pakistan to managing ties with the US.

“The balance sheet for India’s foreign policy after seven decades presents a mixed picture. National development is at the heart of any assessment, and it is difficult to quarrel with the view that there has been significant progress, but not enough. The comparison with what China achieved in the same period is sobering,” Jaishankar said.

“The purposeful pursuit of national interest in shifting global dynamics may not be easy; but it must be done. And the real obstacle to the rise of India is not anymore the barriers of the world, but the dogmas of Delhi,” Jaishankar said at the fourth Ramnath Goenka Lecture on Thursday.

“Reading the global tea leaves right and then leveraging the international situation could have gone better. Indeed the mantra of unchanging foreign policy axioms has discouraged an honest review of our performance and the introduction of timely correctives. Diligence and debate have not been as rigorous as they should for an aspiring player. When combined with the hesitations of history, it had led to unexplored avenues and unrealised outcomes,” he said.

Jaishankar said, "A misreading of geopolitics and economics upto 1991 stands out in contrast to the reformist policies thereafter. Two decades of nuclear indecision ended dramatically with the tests of 1998. The lack of response to 26/11 is so different from the Uri and Balakot operations. Whether it is events or trends, they all bear scrutiny for the lessons they hold.”

On hedging in a multi-polar world, he said, “Hedging is a delicate exercise, whether it is the non-alignment and strategic autonomy of earlier periods, or multiple engagements of the future. But there is no getting away from it in a multi-polar world. This is a game best played on the front-foot, appreciating that progress on any one front strengthens one’s hand on all others. In that sense, it is having many balls up in the air at the same time and displaying the confidence and dexterity to drop none.”

Jaishankar said: “India’s record includes dark moments like the 1962 defeat against China. Or tense ones like the 1965 war with Pakistan where the outcome hung in balance till the very end. And the more triumphal ones such as the 1971 victory which created Bangladesh. There are enough dichotomies in our past to generate a spirited debate on successes and failures.

India, though, is now at the “cusp of change”, the Foreign Minister said. “With more confidence, the pursuit of seemingly divergent goals and the straddling of contradictions are being attempted. Taking risks is inherent to the realisation of ambitions. A nation that has the aspiration to become a leading power someday cannot continue with unsettled borders, an unintegrated region and under-exploited opportunities. Above all, it cannot be dogmatic in approaching a visibly changing global order,” he said.

The EAM said: “Or indeed of the strategic significance of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. This approach to world affairs continued even thereafter. Thus, in 1972 at Shimla, India chose to bet on an optimistic outlook on Pakistan. At the end of the day, it resulted in both a revanchist Pakistan and a continuing problem in Jammu & Kashmir. That it has taken us so long to link talks with Pakistan to cessation of terrorism speaks for itself.” He also made a case for a “more grounded Indian approach” to international relations.

On India withdrawing from the RCEP agreement, Jaishankar said, "On the one hand, we should not go back to the old dogmas of economic autarky and import substitution. But at the same time, embracing the new dogma of globalization without a cost-benefit analysis is equally dangerous...No agreement at this time was better than a bad agreement. It is also important to recognize what the RCEP decision is not. It is not about stepping back from the Act East policy."

In conversation with C Raja Mohan, Contributing Editor, The Indian Express, and Director, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore, Jaishankar responded to questions about Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, and said, “I think a lot of it is ideological debate…There is liberal fundamentalism at work…. My reputation is not decided by a newspaper in New York.”

The Ramnath Goenka Memorial Lecture was instituted in 2016 by The Express Group to mark 25 years of the passing of its founder. The first three RNG Memorial Lectures were delivered by Raghuram Rajan, then RBI Governor; Pranab Mukherjee, then President of India; and Justice Ranjan Gogoi, currently the Chief Justice of India, respectively.