India is now a global consensus builder: Greek PM

New Delhi, February 21

The Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday said India is now often regarded as a consensus builder and a voice of reason in an increasingly polarised world, when it comes to shaping global debates and addressing greater challenges.

“Today, India is a great power on the world stage and an important ally in pursuit of peace and security – a rising force at the heart of G20 and a leading player in the fight against climate change,” said Mitsotakis, the chief guest at the Raisina Dialogue, in the presence of PM Narendra Modi, 20 Foreign Ministers, academicians and several strategic policy experts, mostly from Europe.

The Greek PM endorsed the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) and felt while the war in Gaza was destabilising, it had not ‘undermined the profound and powerful logic behind the IMEC’. He called upon the stakeholders, including India, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the US, to tirelessly work towards its implementation.

“We are your natural doorstep to Europe and beyond. The IMEC is a peace project which can bring peace and prosperity,” said Mitsotakis, about the corridor that has been criticised as a means to side-line the Palestinian issue.

Mitsotakis differed with India’s perception about the Ukraine conflict, which he said was more than a ‘local war on European soil’ and was instead a ‘brutal challenge’ to international stability and the rules-based order that ‘India has supported and has every interest in maintaining it’.’

The Greek PM also dwelt on challenges facing democracies and democratic values and said a society functions optimally when all its citizens are equal and have the right to share in the running of the state. “We must, if necessary, own up to our mistakes, but above all we must listen to each other with mutual respect and without preaching or exhibiting any sense of moral superiority,” he said.

The Raisina Dialogue is MEA’s India’s flagship conference on geopolitics and geo-strategy. The theme of the three-day conference is ‘Chaturanga: Conflict, Contest, Cooperate, Create’. In his closing remarks, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said, “PM Modi’s presence is a reminder of India’s growing engagement with the world, especially in the last decade. He has shown us why it is as important to listen and reflect, as it is to articulate and express.”