“As India rises in the world order, it should not only visualize its interests with great clarity, but also communicate them efficiently.”
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S. Jaishankar
This fabulous book “the India way “by, Mr. S. Jaishankar who is currently serving as the external affairs minister and is a experienced professional diplomat. As the world is moving towards rapid globalization, the foreign policy of India is evolving with the time. This era of growing diplomatic relationship between countries entails greater chances for India to become a leading power. ‘The India way’ gives clear idea of balancing India ‘s interests with international responsibilities; To elaborate,
- The challenges India will face in future
- How India should have bolder and non-reciprocal approach to our extended neighborhood
Basically, this book is collection of strategies which guides India to move forward in this uncertain world with constantly changing geopolitics. Challenges such as terrorism; here the author have focused on how India can be the leading country in counter-terrorism mechanism with other global powers, such issue like dealing with a strategically important and terror-prone country like Afghanistan where India has made investments of billions of dollars in construction of dams, roads and other infrastructure.
As the author have served as ambassador to China from 2009 to 2013, he has clearly saw the motive of China in the geo-politics, therefore he explains how rise of China as a global power is threat to the world, how its aggressive policies such as bullying small countries like Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia etc. in South China sea and increasing its presence in Indo-Pacific Ocean to circle India.
The author highlighted that China’s debt trap policies are making the neighborhood of India more and anti-India; here, while giving the example of Sri Lanka who owns debt of billions of dollars to China, and how China takes away important ports on leases by entangling them in debt traps which can harm India’s interests and bilateral ties with our neighbors.
Secondly, the authors have made a significant remark about india’s potential to grow as a major defense equipment exporter. Recently India defense export to small countries like Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and other southeast Asian nation have seen a spur, we exported missiles like brahmos, and other armistices to these countries which is rising year by year with amazing figures, thus here the author wants to convey india’s potential as a defense manufacturing country.
Mr. Jaishankar have elaborated the recent policies of which have attracted more foreign direct investment from countries like USA, Japan, South Korea, European countries etc. He highlighted that the ongoing trade war between China and USA is being profitable in india’s interest to attract more investments
Moreover, highlights have been made on the potential of India to grow as a strong power with usage of its soft power like – Ayurveda, Bollywood, cultural products, innovation in renewable energy, ecosystem for startups etc. Therefore, ‘The India way’ is a great source of knowledge to understand India’s global interests, problems and uncertain geo-politics of the world.
