CUTTACK: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday spoke on India’s role as a ‘Vishwa Bandhu’ (world’s friend) emphasising its diplomatic influence and global partnerships.
Addressing a conference on ‘Vishwa Bandhu Bharat’ here, he highlighted record Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows and strategic connectivity projects with countries like UAE, Iran, and Russia while outlining India’s effort to enhance global cooperation.
“India’s foreign policy and its identity have reached a new high across the world. When you press a button in a polling booth, its impact will not only be felt on an Assembly, Parliament and India but also across the world,” said Jaishankar.
‘Vishwa Bandhu’ is a term used to refer to a relevant country whose contribution is acknowledged by the world. The entire world believes such country will extend a helping hand and has maximum friends with minimum problems, he said.
“If we look at today’s India and analyse the reasons why we are liked and respected, we will find that a lot of countries are keen to invest here, share technology and include it in the global supply chain. Today India’s FDI inflow has increased and companies like Apple and others are coming here,” said Jaishankar.
He said three high-profile projects are in the offing including connectivity from India to Europe via UAE which is known as India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor. The second is the International North-South Corridor via Iran and Russia. Similarly, another route will help reach Vietnam and the Indo-Pacific via Odisha coastline and North East region.
“There is a lot of scope to make the world a workplace because of the dearth of human resources and extend benefits to citizens. Though a lot of countries are keen to team up with India, connectivity issues persisting since partition remains a challenge before us as we fall short of creating new ones post-Independence,” said the minister.
For connectivity, countries need to come together and contribute. But the main factor is trust. This is where ‘Vishwa Bandhu’ comes into play. Now, countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia, Singapore, Vietnam and others want to work and partner with India.
In the last 10 years, the Central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has laid a strong foundation for the country on the basis of which the goal of Viksit Bharat can be achieved in the next 25 years of the nation’s journey, he said.
Among others, BJP’s Cuttack MP candidate Bhartruhari Mahtab, MLA candidates for Barabati-Cuttack Dr Purna Chandra Mohapatra, Choudwar-Cuttack Nayan Kishore Mohanty and Sadar Prakash Sethi, BJP city unit president Lalatendu Badu were present in the conference.
