S Jaishankar today took charge as the External Affairs Minister a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi retained him in his cabinet in his historic third term.
Jaishankar, 69, was among the senior BJP leaders including Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari and Nirmala Sitharaman who retained the ministries they handled in the previous government.
"It is an immense honour to be once again given the responsibility of leading the Ministry of External Affairs. In the last term, this ministry performed exceptionally well. We delivered the G20 presidency. We took on the challenges of Covid, including vaccine Maitri supplies. We were also the centre of crucial operations like Operation Ganga and Operation Kaveri. In the last decade, this ministry under the leadership of PM Modi has become a very people-centric ministry. You can see that in terms of our improved passport services, and community welfare fund support that we give to Indians abroad...," S Jaishankar said.
Dealing with challenges arising out of China's bullying tactics along the frontier, protecting India's interest in view of the ongoing situation in West Asia and the conflict in Ukraine are expected to be the key priorities of S Jaishankar in his second term.
"In any country and especially in a democracy, it is a very big deal for a government to get elected three times in a row. So, the world will definitely feel that today there is a lot of political stability in India... As far as Pakistan and China are concerned, the relations with those countries are different, and the problems there are also different. Our focus with regard to China will be on finding a solution to the border issues and with Pakistan, we would want to find a solution to the issue of years-old cross-border terrorism..," Jaishankar said on India's relationship with Pakistan and China for the next 5 years.
During his tenure, Jaishankar displayed with confidence his ability to clearly articulate India's positions on a range of complex issues on the global stage, hence emerging as one of the leading ministers with an impressive performance record in PM Modi's previous government.
"...Together, we are very confident it will position us as 'Vishwa Bandhu', a country which is in a very turbulent world, in a very divided world, a world of conflicts and tensions. It would actually position us as a country which is trusted by many, whose prestige and influence, whose interests will be advanced...," Jaishankar said.
He has also been credited with managing to bring matters of foreign policy to domestic discourse, especially during India's presidency of the G20.
On India's UNSC seat in the next 5 years, Jaishankar said, "It has different aspects, and I am fully confident that under PM Modi's leadership, the foreign policy of Modi 3.0 will be very successful...For us, the influence of India has been steadily growing not just in terms of our own perception but also what the other countries think. They feel that India is truly their friend, and they have seen that in times of crisis, if there is one country that stands with the Global South, it is India. They have seen that when we put forward the African Union membership during the presidency of G20, the world trusted us and our responsibilities are also increasing, so we also believe that under the leadership of PM Modi, India's identity in the world will definitely increase..."
Jaishankar served as India's foreign secretary under the first Modi government, and the Ambassador to the United States, China and Czech Republic.
He was also India's high commissioner to Singapore (2007-2009). Jaishankar served in other diplomatic assignments in embassies in Moscow, Colombo, Budapest and Tokyo, as well in the Ministry of External Affairs and the President's Secretariat.
