'Ripple effects' of Israel-Hamas war not entirely clear now: Jaishankar at Kautilya Economic Conclave 2023

Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday (Oct 22) said that the ripple effects of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war are not entirely clear right now. His remarks came while he was addressing the closing plenary session on ‘Navigating a World on Fire’ at the Kautilya Economic Conclave - 2023, organised by the Institute of Economic Growth in association with the Ministry of Finance, in New Delhi.

"The ripple impact of what is taking place right now in the Middle East is still not entirely clear... In different regions, there are smaller happenings whose impact is not inconsequential... There is also the less formal version that is very pervasive, terrorism which has long been honed and practised as a tool of statecraft... Any expectation that conflicts and terrorism can be contained in their impact is no longer tenable. A big part of this is clearly economic, but do not underestimate the danger of metastasis when it comes to radicalism and extremism. No danger is too distant anymore," Jaishankar reportedly said.

He also touched upon the ongoing war in Ukraine by pointing out how some events can have far-reaching consequences "beyond the immediate geography."

In a world where there are traditional notions of US-China bipolarity, Dr. Jaishankar asserted that the United States and China are unlikely to create a new bipolar order as there are many "next-run powers" with "significant clout."

EAM Dr S Jaishankar said, "The unipolar world is a distant history. The bipolar world was even more distant in the bipolarity of the US-Soviet Union. And I don't think US China will really end up bipolar. I think there are too many, as I said, too many next-run powers with sufficient clout and autonomous activity and regions of their own dominance and privacy..."

"If you look today at what is happening in the Middle East, a lot of it is actually, in a sense, the activities are intrinsic to the Middle East... So the key regional players on regional situations are actually today going to be so dominant compared to the past that they're not going to leave that much space for global players or external players to come in. And I think you can see that happening in Africa as well," he added.

Jaishankar's address was not limited to discussing global challenges as he also spoke of the progress made over the years and the continuous emergence of new issues.

At the conclave, Jaishankar said, "... There has been a lot of evidence to show... that we are far better off today than we were a decade or 2 or 5 before. Because every set of solutions throws up a new generation of problems. We constantly dissect, analyze, debate, and sometimes even agonize. The really good people in my business also imagine, anticipate, and foresee... We need both an evolutionary approach as well as audacious thinking... The reason for that is the churning on multiple fronts that the world is going through..."

(With inputs from agencies)

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