Seeking partners, not preachers, EAM’s swipe at EU
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar today asked Europe to display some sensitivity and mutuality of interest for deeper ties with India. New Delhi, he said, was looking for partners and not “preachers”, the minister said at the ‘Arctic Circle India Forum’ while answering questions on India-Europe ties.
Answering a question on India’s expectations from Europe, Jaishankar said it has to get beyond preaching and start acting based on a framework of mutuality.
“When we look out at the world, we look for partners. We do not look for preachers, particularly preachers who do not practice at home and preach abroad,” the minister said.
“I think some of Europe is still struggling with that problem. Some of it has changed,” the External Affairs Minister said, adding Europe has “entered a certain zone of reality check”. “Now whether they are able to step up to it or not, it is something we will have to see,” he said.
“But from our point of view, if we are to develop a partnership, there has to be some understanding, there has to be some sensitivity, there has to be a mutuality of interest and there has to be a realisation of how the world works,” he noted.
“And I think these are all work in progress to differing degrees with different parts of Europe. So some have moved further, some a little bit less,” Jaishankar said.
On the US, he said the best way to engage is through finding mutuality of interests rather than putting ideological differences upfront and then allowing those to cloud the possibilities of working together.
On India-Russia ties, he said there is such an “important fit and complementarity” between the two countries as a “resource provider and resource consumer”.
The minister criticised earlier attempts by the West to find a solution to the Russia-Ukraine conflict without involving Russia, saying it “challenged the basics of realism”.
In the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, New Delhi remained engaged with Moscow and increased its procurement of Russian crude oil, notwithstanding increasing disquiet in the West.
