Delhi: EAM S. Jaishankar says, "...On India-China, if you look at it, we are the only two countries with more than a billion people. We have a certain civilizational history, and today we are on a track of economic recovery or rejuvenation. There is no question that anyone predicting developments in this century cannot leave India and China out of that equation. We are very prominent and key in this regard. However, here is the challenge: we are neighbors, and we have an unresolved boundary issue. Both countries have been rising, and when two large neighboring countries rise simultaneously, it is not easy... Our capabilities, influence, and ambitions will change. Both of us will naturally want to be bigger, more visible, and more effective in the world. The big issue for us is how to achieve equilibrium in our relationship..."
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00:00You know, I would take your question in a way, in three parts.
00:06India-China, India-America and India vis-a-vis China-America.
00:13India-China, I mean, in a way, if you look at it, we are the only two countries with more than a billion people.
00:21We have a certain civilizational history and, you know, all of that people… people know.
00:27And today we are on a track of, I would say, economic recovery or rejuvenation.
00:34And there is no question anybody who's predicting, you know, if you are predicting developments of this century,
00:41I mean, definitely you cannot leave India and China out of that equation.
00:46We are very, very prominent, very key almost in a way, I would say.
00:51But here is the challenge for us, which is that we are neighbors.
00:57We have unresolved boundary issue.
01:05There are, you know, they have been rising. We have also been rising.
01:10So, you know, if both, if two neighboring countries, two large neighboring countries rise next to each other in the same time frame,
01:21it's not easy. There are very, very few historical parallels for that.
01:25So, managing this, you know, double rise, you can say, that too in proximity,
01:33you know, if one was in some other part of the world, it's a different issue.
01:36I think these will have, will require a lot of skill and a lot of deftness and diplomacy.
01:44And the truth is our capabilities will change, our influence will change, our ambitions will change.
01:51You know, both of us will naturally want to be bigger and more visible and more effective in the world.
01:58So how do we get an equilibrium in our relationship?
02:01I think this is one of the big issues for us and for them.
02:06On India and America, I would say, you know, starting with President Clinton's visit in 2000,
02:15we put, you know, we broke out of that American mindset of India-Pakistan hyphenation.
02:25And since then, from Clinton to Bush to Obama to Trump to Biden,
02:31actually you will see India-US has grown steadily all this time.
02:37I would particularly, as someone, I've been dealing with this relationship for more than 40 years,
02:43I would particularly say last 10 years, and I'm not saying it because I, you know,
02:48I'm part of a politically part of the government now, but the last 10 years,
02:53see a lot of the ideological hang-ups that we had vis-a-vis US,
02:59we were able to put that behind and forge ahead much more confidently.
03:03Then, because a lot of the constraints were also self-imposed on our side.
03:08So I do think today that there is a very, very strong convergence between India and US.
03:16It is strategic. It is political. It is very deeply technology driven.
03:22You know, when I look at the future of technology and what it means for global balances of power,
03:28I think it's certainly an area, you know, a domain which will be very important.
03:33If you look at the people-to-people relationship, the size of the community out there, that has changed.
03:41So I'm very confident that that relationship will do very well. It won't be automatic.
03:46I mean, beech beech mein kuch problems ho sakti. But I am confident we will always be able to deal with those issues.
03:53Now you have US, China, you know, clearly there's a very sharp rivalry between them today.
04:02So these are calculations that they have made about each other.
04:08I think where we are concerned, we have to make calculations from our interest point of view,
04:13that we have to look at the world situation and say, OK, you know, what are the decisions,
04:18what are the choices or what are the issues on which, you know, my going, taking this step will help me in what manner.
04:27And I think that's that's really what we would like to do.
04:31That at the end of the day, you know, if we are looking at a at a foreign policy,
04:38which has a very sharp sense of what is our national interest, but also a sense of what is global interest.
04:44I would definitely say we would make those calculations and take those decisions and create, you know, the right partnerships which will serve our interest.