EAM Jaishankar addresses Indian community in Spain, highlights India's positioning in today's world

While addressing an Indian community event in Spain on Tuesday, Jaishankar said that India has taken its slogan of 'sabka saath, sabka vikas and sabka vishwas' to the world. He said that world wants to understand India's positioning and ideas.

Jaishankar said, "I come back to the invitation that I got, when a foreign ministry and ambassadors of another country ask you to come and speak to them, it is worth thinking, why is that so and my sense is there are three reasons today, one - India's positioning today is very important that all countries in the world today, seeing the situation of the world today, think that having good ties with India is in the interest of many, many countries. So, they want to understand our positioning. The second is our capabilities. They feel that this Bharat is new Bharat. Our economy is at fifth position."

"Everyone says India will reach the third spot in few years. You all will remember, 10 years back, we were at 10th or 11th position. World recognises the pace at which progress is happening in India today. So, first is positioning and second is capabilities. And the third is actually our ideas, that India is today seen as contributing to a global conversation. That when the world is looking at many, many challenges, somewhere on different issues, we get some ideas, some initiatives. And if you want to hear about that, I would like to explain a little bit about that. So, let me say a few words about the positioning," he added.

He recalled Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Russia and Ukraine in 2024. He stated PM Modi is able to speak to both Isral and Iran. He said that India is in a position to be members of both Quad and BRICS.

Highlighting India's position, Jaishankar said, "There are very few countries today who are in a position to talk to Russia and to Ukraine. You must have seen last year, Prime Minister Modi went to Russia twice, and travelled to Kyiv, Ukraine. Who are in a position to talk to Israel and Iran and PM Modi is able to do both. Who are in a position to be members of Quad and be members of BRICS."

"So, this is something which is actually very, very unique. And it is unique because if you look at the world today, there are so many tensions in the world, war is also happening at two places. It is a very polarized world. So in a polarized world, if there is a country, which we used to say in India, 'sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas'. We are actually able to take it into the world as well and that is something which slowly, slowly other nations have started to understand and to value. But, it doesn't have to be only a conflict," he added.

He also mentioned about India's efforts to include African Union as a member of G20 under its presidency. He also talked about the help India extended to the world in the time of COVID-19 pandemic, which included vaccines.

Jaishankar said, "Under our presidency, G20 which is a forum of the world's top 20 economies. Spain's representatives arealso present at its meetings. Now, many countries have led G20. We were the one country which was able to actually get G20 to accept African Union as a member, which had been tried for many years. But others somehow did not push it or were not able to persuade. So we were able to persuade. Again, you know, you people will remember the time of COVID. Now, when we look at COVID, everybody says, at least we got saved, we got out of it somehow. Everybody thought, I got out of it and we understand it's natural. But we are one of the few countries where, if you go around the world, there are 100 countries, 99 countries in the world who say, if I got my vaccine, it was because of India."

Emphasising India's willingness to help nations, "So, even in very difficult situations, even with Spain, I will tell you. I remember President Sanchez having a phone call with Prime Minister Modi about hydroxychloroquine supply. So, whatever we had, whatever we made, there was a willingness to do something for the world with us. So today, this positioning that in difficult issues, in very hard times, there is this country called India, which is able to talk to different parties, which is willing to help other parties which may have, because I tell people, we are a country still with average Indian earns 3000 euros a year. The average income in this part of the world is what 45,000, 15 times that. So, it is not a question of money or resources. At the end of the day, it is a question of heart and mind. But those who have the ability, the thinking, the sympathy to do something for the world, and those who have the credibility to become a bridge," he added.

External Affairs Minister spoke about development that is happening in India. He said that the rate of change happening in India today is "amazing" and people living there have adjusted to the rate of change.

Calling on people to see changes when they next visit India. he said, "One reason I think today which I could see, they wanted to deal, understand in India, which was willing to do this. The second issue, as I told you, is the issue of strength. And the fact is today we are almost a USD 4 trillion economy. We are doubling at a faster and faster rate. That is the progression. It is not automatic. But if you look at the changes today in India, I don't know how many of you go to India, how frequently. I would say at least in two years, everybody would have gone, three years."

"So, next time when you go, if you go after three years, whichever is your home place, wherever you get down, wherever you travel to your home. I guarantee you, you will see the difference. And you will see the difference because actually, the rate of change in India today is amazing. But, people who live in India have actually adjusted to that rate of change. Even though 10 years ago, 20 years ago, that rate of change could not have been imagined," he added.

Highlighting the development of railway track and highways in India, Jaishankar said that India plans to make 4,000 kilometers of new railway track every year. He said that 28 kilometers of highway is being built each day.

"I think it was at the meeting with the minister today. We were talking about railways. And I told him that we have a plan to every year make 4,000 kilometers of new railway track. You will say he is just saying it. We are doing it. Every day in our country, between 12 to 14 kilometers of new railway track is being built. Think about it. Every day, 28 kilometers of highway is being built. If you look at airports, because all of you, when you go to India, you are in a hurry, you will travel to your hometown. In the last 10 years, the number of airports in our country has doubled. From 75 airports, we are now in access of 150 airports," he said.

Speaking about the rise in the number of metros in India, he said, "In many cities which some of you would be coming from, earlier we used to listen to the metro, now it is being built or it has already been built. The number of metros have grown from 6 in 2014 to 21 today, and we have a plan to take it to 60. 60 cities of India will have a metro. So, this is not the India which they normally hear about, read about, think about. This was not our image before."

He also spoke about doing business becoming much more smoother in India. He said, "Now, it's reflected in other areas, you know, the business that comes from the world, they see today that business is that much smoother. I see some of you nodding your heads. I hope this has been your experience as well. And so when others, when a country like Spain thinks of India, they see the strength, but they also see the demand. They know that if there is so much growth, then there are so many consumers. If there are so many consumers, then the demand increases. And for everything in India, it may be Zara, it may be Yadro products that today India has become a major market in the eyes of other countries, the Indian consumer also. So the Indian business counts, the Indian consumer counts, the Indian exporter counts. So, in their overall scheme of things, when they look at the future, they see today some new phenomenon happening out."

He said that 40 million homes for people of low income have been built in the past 10 years. Jaishankar said, "In the last 10 years, we have actually built and given 40 million homes to people of low income. 40 million homes is almost the size of the 40 into 5, because the average Indian family is 5. That is five times, four times the population of Spain. If you take any program today, if you look at health, few years back, we started this program called Ayushman Bharat. Today, one third of India, one third of India means 400 million people, which means almost nine or 10 times the population of Spain. It's covered by free health or subsidized health."

He said that people used to use firewood for cooking and 110 million people in India got cylinders. He said that there are 16 million UPI cashless transactions taking place in India per month.

"That today, you all wake up and see mobile phone in your hand. None of us can last 10 minutes today without checking on the phone. I mean, this is true. So, you put down your phone immediately as soon as I said it. But, fact is, today, because data is cheap, because we have the amount today, the number of towers is high, the OFCs are built, data is cheap, efficiency, there is business efficiency," he said.

"So, when you look even at today cashless payments, when people talk about UPI, we do 16 billion UPI cashless transactions per month. America does four or five in a year. We do 16 in a month. And it is not, you know, it is not the educated well-off middle-class person in the city who's doing it. As I said, if you leave the city and go out into the streets, even the street vendor does it. And that is deep change. Because when people of, you know, of even low income start embracing technology, when they start using new tools in their daily life, and beyond a point, people don't even think it is new. They think that from the beginning, this phone and this cashless transaction, people don't keep money with them nowadays," he added. (ANI)