India looking for partners, not preachers: Jaishankar takes a dig at Europe

Europe must display some sensitivity and mutuality of interest for deeper ties with India, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Sunday, asserting that New Delhi is looking for partners and not “preachers”.

In an interactive session, Jaishankar said India always advocated the “Russia realism” and there is an “important fit” and “complementarity” between India and Russia as a resource provider and consumer.

The external affairs minister also criticised earlier attempts by the West to find a solution to the Russia-Ukraine conflict without involving Russia, saying it “challenged the basics of realism”.

“Just like I am an advocate of Russia realism, I am also an advocate of America realism,” he said at the ‘Arctic Circle India Forum’.

“I think the best way to engage today’s America is also through finding mutuality of interests rather than putting ideological differences upfront and then allowing it to cloud the possibilities of working together,” he said.

The external affairs minister was broadly delving into global consequences of developments in the Arctic and how the changing world order impacts the region.

While answering a question about India’s expectations from Europe, Jaishankar said it has to get beyond preaching and start acting based on a framework of mutuality.

“When we look out at the world, we look for partners; we do not look for preachers, particularly preachers who do not practice at home and preach abroad,” he said.

“I think some of Europe is still struggling with that problem. Some of it has changed,” the External Affairs Minister said, adding, Europe has “entered a certain zone of reality check”.

“Now whether they are able to step up to it or not, it is something we will have to see,” he said.

“But from our point of view, if we are to develop a partnership, there has to be some understanding, there has to be some sensitivity, there has to be a mutuality of interest and there has to be a realisation of how the world works,” he noted.

“And I think these are all work in progress to differing degrees with different parts of Europe. So some have moved further, some a little bit less,” Jaishankar said.

On India-Russia ties, he said there is such an “important fit and complimentarily” between the two countries as a “resource provider and resource consumer”.

“Where Russia is concerned, we have always taken a view that there is a Russia realism that we have advocated.”

“When passions were very high (in) 2022, 2023..if one looks back at that period, the kind of predictions and scenarios which were put forward have turned out not to be well founded,” he said

In the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, New Delhi remained engaged with Moscow and increased its procurement of Russian crude oil notwithstanding increasing disquiet in the West.