New Delhi, March 31: ‘From India’s perspective the world order has changed after Taliban takeover of Afghanistan last year and what is happening as a consequence of the rise of China and the policies Beijing has followed with its neighbors’, said External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in First India-UK Strategic Futures Forum (IUSFF). Speaking at the IUSFF meeting, along with visiting UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, he also said that the real problems as a consequence of the Ukraine war are still to come, in terms of the effect on energy prices and on commodities. “The full impact of what is happening in Ukraine and the responses to that is still unfolding… a set of shocks will produce a new kind of world order… unconsciously rebalancing and multipolarity has been the trend, and in the last two-three years Covid has been a shock, Afghanistan has been a shock, and Ukraine has been a shock…” “The world order changed from our vantage point from what happened in Afghanistan and what is happening due to the consequences of the rise of China and the policies it has followed with neighbors…” in reference to Beijing’s very close ties with Pakistan, its frosty relations with India, and now its active wooing of Afghanistan. To Truss speaking strongly on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and on the need for the world to ensure that Putin is not allowed to succeed, Jaishankar said: “All of us are entitled to our perspective and all of us see the world from our vantage point. The world order is not a sudden shift, it is something happening continuously, progressively,” he said, adding that an example “is the fact that the G7’s centrality has been replaced, not identically by the G20, a broader spread of countries”. On China’s position on Ukraine, the EAM said that the two sides discussed the Ukraine situation though ties between New Delhi and Beijing are not at their best. “We had Mr. Wang Yi about a week ago, obviously we discussed the Ukraine situation, and discussed out own relationship that is not going through the best period. The Chinese had their own analysis of what is going on in Ukraine, but we agreed on the need for an urgent ceasefire and return to diplomacy and dialogue,” he said. (UNI)
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