S. Jaishankar > Quotes

“A 2018 study estimated that the resources drained from India by the UK alone were as much as $ 45 trillion by current value.”
― S. Jaishankar, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World

“The ethos of the Indian Ocean is a consultative one and in the long run, it is the people-centric initiatives and projects that are likely to be more sustainable.”
― S. Jaishankar, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World

“South Asia is clearly among the least integrated regions of the world and being located at the centre of the Indian Ocean, its dysfunctionality affects that larger space directly.”
― S. Jaishankar, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World

“The India Way, especially now, would be more of a shaper or decider rather than just be an abstainer”
― S. Jaishankar, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World

“This is a time for us to engage America, manage China, cultivate Europe, reassure Russia, bring Japan into play, draw neighbours in, extend the neighbourhood and expand traditional constituencies of support. The”
― S. Jaishankar, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World

“In the Trump vision of the world, allies have disappointed America and competitors have cheated it. India is fortunate in being neither.”
― S. Jaishankar, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World

“Mother India is in many ways the mother of us all’ – WILL DURANT”
― S. Jaishankar, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World

“China’s rise is especially instructive for India. It was driving diplomatically in the late 1970s efforts to forge a united front against the USSR. This is in contrast to its reluctance to intervene, even indirectly, in the 1971 Bangladesh conflict despite being exhorted to do so by the Nixon Administration. What changed during this period was a determination to break up the cooperative strand in the ties between the US and USSR that was constricting China’s strategic space. So it utilized both the Vietnam and Afghanistan conflicts to that end. And thus created a favourable political climate for the flow of Western investments. So much so, that even when the Tiananmen incident happened, there were enough advocates abroad to mitigate the damage. Having more than achieved its strategic objectives when the USSR broke up, China altered course and made up with a Russia coming under pressure. For an Indian assessing this period, it is telling that a competitor willing to take greater risks and pursue strategic clarity not only got a decade’s head start in economic growth but also a more favourable geopolitical balance. So much again for consistency.”
― S. Jaishankar, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World

“Asia is being shaped largely by the outlook of the US, the power of China, the weight of Russia, the collectivism of ASEAN, the volatility of the Middle East and the rise of India.”
― S. Jaishankar, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World

“be different.”
― S. Jaishankar, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World

“As electoral outcomes have affirmed across continents, the trend line today points towards stronger cultural identities and more nationalist narratives.”
― S. Jaishankar, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World

“The key to a more settled Sino-Indian relationship is a greater acceptance by both countries of multipolarity and mutuality, building on a larger foundation of global rebalancing.”
― S. Jaishankar, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World

“In fact, the ability of India, Japan and the US to work together in a trilateral framework has been one of the novel elements of the changing Asian political landscape.”
― S. Jaishankar, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World

“China’s rise is especially instructive for India. It was driving diplomatically in the late 1970s efforts to forge a united front against the USSR. This is in contrast to its reluctance to intervene, even indirectly, in the 1971 Bangladesh conflict despite being exhorted to do so by the Nixon Administration. What changed during this period was a determination to break up the cooperative strand in the ties between the US and USSR that was constricting China’s strategic space. So it utilized both the Vietnam and Afghanistan conflicts to that end. And thus created a favourable political climate for the flow of Western investments. So much so, that even when the Tiananmen incident happened, there were enough advocates abroad to mitigate the damage. Having more than achieved its strategic objectives when the USSR broke up, China altered course and made up with a Russia coming under pressure.”
― S. Jaishankar, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World

“The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior’ – PLATO”
― S. Jaishankar, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World

“Those constrained by their inabilities can only take comfort in the reputational advantages that they inadvertently enjoy.”
― S. Jaishankar, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World

“India is today on a voyage of self-discovery and the lessons of Awadh are its surest compass in that quest.”
― S. Jaishankar, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World

“Unlike other nations that rose earlier in Asia, China is much harder to fit into the Western-led global order.”
― S. Jaishankar, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World

“The resistance to road-building in Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected areas is one obvious example. But if national prospects are undermined or border area infrastructure paralysed, then it is a worry of an even greater magnitude. As the record shows, this can come in many forms and appearances, some openly negative while others take the cover of public good.”
― S. Jaishankar, Why Bharat Matters

“Being an ethical power is one aspect of the India Way.”
― S. Jaishankar, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World

“brand differentiation between two neighbours who each produce their own brand of IT graduates: one on information technology, and the other on international terrorism.”
― S. Jaishankar, Why Bharat Matters

“If sympathy, succour and support are given abroad to separatists in the name of democratic freedoms, should we display equanimity?”
― S. Jaishankar, Why Bharat Matters

“After all, Atmanirbhar Bharat does coexist with Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the world is a family).”
― S. Jaishankar, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World

“To begin with, this means a clear position on the unacceptability of cross-border terrorism. It is obviously not in our national interest that we normalize terrorism by carrying on with the rest of the relationship as usual.”
― S. Jaishankar, Why Bharat Matters

“For decades, India and Pakistan were uttered in the same breath and their differences made to look like a natural agenda left over from Partition. There were even periods when a military regime in our neighbouring country was held out as an example of development!”
― S. Jaishankar, Why Bharat Matters

“If connectivity is not to acquire sharp strategic meaning, then there must be credible assurances that projects are not used to exert influence.”
― S. Jaishankar, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World

“Whether drawing strength from its heritage and culture or approaching challenges with the optimism of democracy and technology, this is certainly a New India, indeed an India that is able to define its own interests, articulate its own positions, find its own solutions and advance its own model. In short, this is an India that is more Bharat.”
― S. Jaishankar, Why Bharat Matters

“Where maritime security and HADR situations are concerned, India has emerged as a key player, especially in the Indian Ocean.”
― S. Jaishankar, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World

“When it came to displaying strategic clarity about Pakistan, there is no question that Patel and Mookerjee stand out.”
― S. Jaishankar, Why Bharat Matters

“India’s world view is consultative, democratic and equitable, but must find clearer expression.”
― S. Jaishankar, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World