“Centre’s efforts aimed to make India developed in 25 years”: S Jaishankar

INTERNATIONAL DESK: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday highlighted ongoing development in India and asserted that the Indian government’s efforts are aimed at making India a successful and developed country in the next 25 years.

“You can see our effort is to ensure that in the next 25 years, we are successful and become a developed country. A developed country doesn’t just mean a developed economy, it is also a country which is aware, conscious and proud of its traditions, heritage and culture,” he said.

While interacting with the Indologists in St Petersburg, EAM Jaishankar added, “Today when you look at India, we are an economy, which is approaching 4 trillion dollars. If you look at how digital India has become, if you look at the pace of change, including in education… Today, for the last ten years in India, every day two new colleges are established. So that is the pace where education is concerned and it’s not just in education.”

S Jaishankar also highlighted the importance of people-to-people connections and noted that Indology is beyond knowledge, scholarship and culture.

He said, “Given the state of the world geopolitical state of the world, it is today particularly important that we have a direct understanding of each other than other countries or societies and other nations. To me, Indology is something, beyond knowledge and scholarship, beyond culture and tradition…It’s an effort and investment to directly understand the very important society.”

He added, “Part of it is communication, relationship building, understanding each other…we speak today of a multipolar world, so there is a rebalancing in the world. It’s not a world that is dominated by a few countries, societies, and traditions. In this rebalancing, it is also important…to develop International relations with Indian characteristics is my major preoccupation.”

Earlier yesterday, in a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar underscored the significant progress in India-Russia bilateral trade, surpassing USD 50 billion.

Jaishankar emphasized the potential for further growth and the need to give the trade relationship a more sustainable character.

“I would like to highlight the progress we have and trade, which is in excess of a turnover of USD 50 million, and we believe that this is something whose potential is now only beginning to be visible. It is important that we give it a more sustainable character, and we discussed how we should do that,” said Mr Jaishankar.

Moreover, President Vladimir Putin extended an invitation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit Russia next year.

“We will be glad to see our friend, Prime Minister Modi in Russia,” Vladimir Putin said during a meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar at the Kremlin.

Mr Jaishankar arrived in Moscow on Sunday for a four-day visit to Russia from December 25-29. After he arrived in Moscow, Jaishankar said he looked forward to his engagements in Russia. (NDTV)