BANGKOK: Amid reciprocal tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday said the world is moving to an era of self-help and every region needs to look out for itself. Addressing the 20th BIMSTEC Ministerial, Jaishankar said shorter supply chains and immediate neighbours have a salience much more than before.
“The reality is that the world is moving to an era of self-help. Every region needs to look out for itself, whether it is in food, fuel and fertilizer supply, vaccines or speedy disaster response,” the minister said. “We are seeing that unfold before our very eyes. Times have indeed changed. Shorter supply chains and immediate neighbours have a salience much more than before,” Jaishankar said.
While Jaishankar is here to attend the BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) Ministerial, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will join the leaders from Thailand, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar and Bhutan to oversee the signing of the Agreement on Maritime Cooperation at the 6th BIMSTEC summit.
The minister said the BIMSTEC Summit was taking place in “very uncertain and volatile times, when the global order itself is under visible churn.” “This should encourage us to approach BIMSTEC from a more ambitious perspective. The new order, whose outlines have only now started to become visible, is intrinsically more regional and agenda-specific,” Jaishankar said.
“The era when a few powers underwrote the international system is now behind us. What we make of our prospects is very much dependent on ourselves. As developing nations who face a multitude of challenges, that is better done in concert with each other than individually,” the minister said. Highlighting that India’s north-eastern region in particular is emerging as a connectivity hub for the BIMSTEC, with a myriad network of roads, railways, waterways, grids and pipelines, Jaishankar said, “The completion of the Trilateral Highway will connect India’s North East all the way to the Pacific Ocean, a veritable game-changer.”
Jaishankar also said that the nations around the Bay of Bengal have both common interests and shared concerns which emanates from history, where other priorities overrode the well-being of this region. “Whether it is connectivity, trade, investment or services between the BIMSTEC members, we are performing below our real potential. Now, if we are to change that, both the past and the future are our friends,” he said. Jaishankar said from India’s perspective BIMSTEC represented the trifecta of three crucial initiatives – the Act East Policy, the Neighbourhood First approach and the MAHA-SAGAR outlook.
“It is also on the pathway to our Indo-Pacific commitment. In order to promote BIMSTEC, what India is doing is to draw the best from all of them and then synergise that with our collective efforts,” the minister said. On March 12, Modi had announced India’s new vision for the Global South and named it ‘MAHASAGAR’ or Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions, a policy approach that came against the backdrop of China’s relentless attempts to expand its influence in the Indian Ocean.
The MAHASAGAR vision builds on the SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region) policy that Modi had first announced during his visit to Mauritius in 2015.
