Foreign secy: World wants India to play greater role

Bengaluru: Stressing on the greater role that India will play in the future, foreign secretary S. Jaishankar on Friday said that the international relations demands much more ‘nimbler and multi-dimensional foreign policy’ with an ability to take a call depending upon the situations.

“In the last 70 years, on the positive side we have secured our national integrity and the relationship with the NATO powers are substantive and balanced. The world expects us to play a greater role in international negotiations and the Indian diaspora is greatly respected,” Jaishankar said at the K Subrahmanyam Memorial Lecture at National Institute of Advanced Studies.

Explaining the kind of change of India underwent from the era of Subrahmanyam, when the country was yet to overcome the aftereffects of partition and improve scientific capabilities which were still in the nascent stage, Jaishankar pointed out that without factoring the turbulent period of the conflicts of 1960s, it was difficult to understand Subrahmanyam’s generation.