If Pakistan behaves well India’s hand is extended: Jaishankar

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 18

Speaking on the contentious India-Pakistan relations, former Indian foreign secretary S Jaishankar on Wednesday said If Pakistan behaved well India’s hand is extended and mind is open.

He said this answering a question after delivering the ‘Jasjit Singh Memorial Lecture on National Security’.

On being asked if the surgical strikes or the Doklam stand-off had been politicised, Jaishankar said, “The short answer is No.”

On being asked how it is conducting foreign policy in times when Donald Trump is US President, Jaishankar said, “We should keep in mind our own interests and not be swayed by what the New York Times or the Washington Post write about him.”

“The issues in the US are largely their internal matter and we need to have some balance in assessing matters,” he said.

During the lecture, he said India faced hard security challenges, including unresolved borders.

“This is not just the past, they continue today and will carry on in the future,” warned Jaishankar.

He advocated a joint in civil bureaucracy, the military and economic policy to succeed globally.

“Change culture of silos that is so deeply entrenched in Lutyen’s Delhi,” he said, adding jointness and collaboration would be the future.

He said diplomacy is optimistic profession but fashionable debating points could not become basis of policy and it could not be divorced from reality. He called for securitisation of foreign policy.

“Economy and technology will be tectonic shifts and not those military in nature,” he said.

He said that at the heart of the US-China dispute is that China acquired technology from the US through unfair means.

Corelation between security and technology had grown and a global society had made threats seamless, he added.

Taking on multitude of policy debaters, he said we had created opinions and not analysis. “We need to close this gap between policymakers and analysers like think-tanks.”

During Doklam issue (June-August 2017) and surgical strikes (Sept 2016) we showed adequate coordination, Jaishankar said.

As India goes up the ladder in international politics it would have to shoulder greater responsibility, he added.

China’s rise has taken place without conflict. It has risen on trade and investment.

He said we could not neglect the investment of China in India.

Air Commodore Jasjit Singh was the Founding Director General of the Centre for Air Power Studies (CAPS).

The lecture was organised by the Forum for National Security Studies and the CAPS.