India is pushing the boundaries of its cooperation and interests further north and west with links to Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa, External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said Friday in a speech that played up the Asian power’s growing global role.
“The transformation of India is critical to strengthening multipolarity in Asia itself, a prerequisite for a multipolar world,” Jaishankar told Nikkei’s Future of Asia forum in a video message.
Vying with China, India has sought to rally the Global South around its rising economic clout. The International Monetary Fund forecasts India to surpass Japan as the world’s fourth-largest economy in 2025.
India began “the “Neighborhood First Policy for the Subcontinent” under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, providing aid for projects ranging from infrastructure to health to women’s empowerment. But it also has wider connections.
“India’s extended interests now reach out to Central Asian states in the north and the Indian Ocean ones to the south,” Jaishankar said. “Its engagement with Africa has also intensified, especially along the East African coastline.”
“India’s focus on its extended neighborhood is also expressed westward by intensifying cooperation with Gulf nations,” which are some of its biggest partners in terms of trade, investment and energy.
These ties are on top of its longstanding relations with ASEAN nations.
Jaishankar also touched on relations with Japan, a key economic partner and fellow member of the Quad security dialogue with Australia and the U.S.
“De-risking the international economy by promoting more centers of production should be our main focus” in various areas including industrial competitiveness, clean energy, digital partnership and semiconductor supply chains.
He said “our economies complement each other in many respects and we must explore those opportunities more seriously.”
Jaishankar added that India and Japan, as major Asian economies, “have a particular obligation to enhance its stability and security.” He expressed India’s openness to “building defense cooperation and interoperability and committing ourselves to supporting peaceful resolution of disputes and respect for international law.”
Last year’s G20 president is now in the final stretch of the world’s biggest general election. “India seeks to lead by example,” he said. “The ongoing Indian elections underline that democracies can really deliver.”
