He was responding to a question about India’s apparent freedom to choose between multiple partners, including the US, Europe and Russia and the implicit assumption that the BRICS forum dominated by Beijing and Moscow was “anti-Western”. Affirming the distinction “between being non-West and anti-West”, Jaishankar said he would “characterise India as a country which is non-West but which has an extremely strong relation with the Western countries, getting better by the days”. While Russia and China might want to mobilise the BRICS against the West, Jaishankar said India had no interest in such an agenda. Although many in the West are dismayed by Delhi’s close ties to Russia and BRICS, Secretary Blinken had no reason to quarrel with Jaishankar’s formulation. He endorsed Jaishankar’s case for “flexibility” in international relations and underlined the importance of “variable geometry” in the current global context.

Source: Indian Express February 19, 2024 08:21 UTC