New Delhi: With the Lok Sabha elections just around the corner, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar Tuesday assured officials from Europe of “continuity” and “stability” in India, adding that when democracy works, citizens “re-elect” governments.
His remarks come at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is eyeing a third consecutive term, having stated on the floor of Parliament earlier this month that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) aims to win 370 seats by itself, and 400 in total in partnership with its NDA allies.
Speaking at the second CII-India Europe Business and Sustainability Conclave organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Tuesday, Jaishankar said: “In this country, we know that when democracy really works, we re-elect governments. I want to promise our European colleagues that there will be stability, continuity, more vision, more change, greater reform and certainly, more business.”
Certain world leaders have seemingly endorsed the Modi government’s re-election bid.
Last December, Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a meeting with Jaishankar, said he wished “our friends every success”, before stopping short of the remark and adding that friendly ties between New Delhi and Moscow will persist irrespective of the outcome of the election.
“We wish our friends every success in that and we hope that… anyway, no matter what the alignment of political forces would be, the traditional conventional friendly ties will persist between our nations,” he said.
Jaishankar on IMEC & trilateral highway
During his remarks at the business conclave, Jaishankar suggested that the proposed India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), along with the 1,400-km (India–Myanmar–Thailand) Trilateral Highway, can provide a lateral connectivity corridor for European goods all the way to the Pacific region.
The IMEC, announced on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in New Delhi last year, seeks to connect India to the Gulf and the Gulf to Europe, though technical questions continue to loom especially on funding of the project and its implementation against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war.
When the IMEC was announced, perhaps not all countries were “adequately cognisant of the fragility of existing connectivity,” Jaishankar remarked.
The India–Myanmar–Thailand Trilateral Highway, meanwhile, remains under construction since it was first proposed in the early 2000s. A military coup in Myanmar in February 2021 further complicated the progress of the project.
Last July, Jaishankar met his Myanmarese counterpart Than Swe to discuss expediting the trilateral highway, as well as other projects.
In his remarks Tuesday, the Indian foreign minister acknowledged that there are “challenges” in Myanmar and described the highway project as “arduous”.
Speaking at the second CII-India Europe Business and Sustainability Conclave https://t.co/RXt9RJTjnN
— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) February 20, 2024
However, he also pitched for the IMEC and the highway to be seen together — a concept he first raised while speaking at the ‘Indian Ocean Conference’ in Australia earlier this month.
“If IMEC connects India to Europe through the West, and the trilateral highway — when it is done and we have challenges in Myanmar there — it will go all the way to the Vietnamese coast. You will have a lateral connectivity grid which would connect Europe all the way to the Pacific, mostly by land,” Jaishankar said.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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