NEW DELHI: The India-China relationship is key to the future of Asia, said External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar.
“I think the India-China relationship is key to the future of Asia. In a way, you can say if the world is to be multipolar. And therefore, this relationship will influence not just the future of Asia, but in that way perhaps the future of the world as well,” said Dr Jaishankar while speaking at Asia Society Policy Institute in New York on Tuesday.
India has long pursued the ‘Act East’ policy with ASEAN at its centre. But during the last decade, it has matured into something beyond ASEAN.
“So, I would argue that the arrival of Indo-Pacific as a strategic concept is actually the success of the ‘Act East’ policy and the extension of India's interests today all the way to Australia, which is for us today a very crucial Quad partner,” he added.
Meanwhile, he also spoke about the importance of India's ties with the Gulf - which has again dramatically changed in the last decade.
“I would particularly point to some interesting connectivity proposals, and initiatives, which are on the table, most notably the IMEC, the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor. And I point to it because what it does is, in a way, it connects the Atlantic to India, Europe through the Arabian Peninsula to India,” he added.
India is also, notwithstanding a lot of challenges, trying to build connectivity to the Pacific through Myanmar, which is called the Trilateral Highway.
“This is conceivable, perhaps by the end of the decade, that you could actually have land-based, primarily land-based, connectivity all the way from the Atlantic to the Pacific, which runs through Asia, and which will have obviously very profound strategic and economic consequences,” Dr Jaishankar added.