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External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held a meeting with Germany's Defence Minister Boris Pistorius on Friday (local time) on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. The two leaders held talks on bilateral cooperation and Ukraine's development.
In a post on X, Jaishankar stated, "Pleased to meet Defence Minister Boris Pistorius of Germany. Our talk revolved around bilateral cooperation and the Ukraine development." The 61st Munich Security Conference (MSC) is being held in Germany's Munich from February 14-16. The MSC 2025 will offer an unparalleled platform for high-level debates on the key foreign and security policy challenges of time. Earlier, Jaishankar participated in a panel discussion on the topic 'Live to Vote Another Day: Fortifying Democratic Resilience' at the Munich Security Conference alongside Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, US Senator Elissa Slotkin and Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowsk. During the panel discussion, Jaishankar expressed optimism over the direction of India's democracy and stressed that India's democracy has delivered. He spoke how the elections are conducted in India and mentioned about recent elections in Delhi and parliamentary elections held in 2024. When asked about his views regarding Western democracy, Jaishankar said, "Well before I do that, I appeared to be optimist in what is relatively a pessimistic panel, if not room. I will begin by sticking up my finger and don't take it badly, it is the index finger. This, the mark you see on my nail, is a mark of a person who has just voted. We just had an election in my state just over. Last year, we had a national election. In Indian elections, roughly two-thirds of the eligible voters vote. At the national elections, the electorate of about 900 million, about 700 million voted. We count the votes in a single day." "Nobody disputes the result after it's announced and by the way, from the time we started voting in the modern era, 20 per cent of people more vote today than they did decades ago. So, the first message is that somehow democracy is in trouble globally, worldwide, I am sorry, I have to differ with it. I mean, right now, we are living well. We are voting well. We are optimistic about the direction of our democracy and for us democracy is actually delivered," he added. Jaishankar said that India is a democratic society and gives nutrition support to 800 million people. He noted that there are parts where democracy is working well and there could be parts where it is not. However, he underscored that it is should not considered a universal phenomenon. External Affairs Minister said, "Senator you said that democracy doesn't put food on your table. Actually, in my part of the world, it does because it actually, today because we are a democratic society, we give nutrition support, and food to 800 million people and for whom that is a matter of how healthy they are and how full their stomachs are. So, the point I want to make is look different parts of the world are going through different conversations. Please do not assume that this is a kind of universal phenomenon, it is not." "There are parts where it is working well, maybe there are parts where its not and the parts which are not, I think people need to have honest conversations about why it is not but I would argue that as to an extent as someone dispassionately viewing it, which was your question, there are some problems, a lot of it is a accumulated problem of the model of globalisation that we have followed for the last 25-30 years. I think a lot of chickens have come home to roost. So, yes there are issues but from our point of view today not all over the world but let's not make that universal," he added. (ANI)
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