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Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar on Thursday batted for shaping international relations with Indian characteristics, stressing that it is his "major preoccupation" to devote more time to looking at India's reservoir of culture and knowledge.
He also said that in today's geopolitical state of the world, it is very important for the countries to have a direct understanding of each other. "Part of it is communication, relationship building, understanding each other...we speak today of multipolar world, so there is a rebalancing in the world. It's not a world that is dominated by few countries, societies, traditions. In this rebalancing, it is also important...to develop international relations with Indian characteristics is my major pre occupation", said Jaishankar while addressing the round-table conference in St Petersburg. The EAM was speaking at a round table conference with Indologists in Russia's St Petersburg. Notably, Indologists are students of subjects like Indian literature, Indian history, and Indian philosophy. Addressing the round-table conference, Jaishankar said, "Given the geopolitical state of the world, it is today particularly important that we have a direct understanding of each other than other countries, or socities and other nations. To me, Indology is something beyond knowledge and scholarship, beyond culture and tradition. It's an effort and investment to directly first-hand understand society, which is very important." Emphasising the role of intellectuals, Jaishankar further said that more people need to step up and provide directions. "At the end of the day, the intellectual, their role, the scholar's contribution are very important. While the school may be a demonstration of that, I think we also need examples of who will set those directions," the EAM said. Jaishankar also said that India is approaching being a USD 4 trillion economy and New Delhi's efforts is to become a developed country in the next 25 years. "Today, when you look at India, we have an economy that is approaching 4 trillion dollars. If you look at how digital India has become, you can see the pace of change, including in education. For the last ten years in India, every day two new colleges are established. So that is the pace where education is concerned and it's not just in education," Jaishankar said. He added, "You can see our effort is to ensure that in the next 25 years, we are successful and become a developed country. A developed country doesn't just mean a developed economy; it is also a country that is aware, conscious and proud of its traditions, heritage and culture." (ANI)
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