External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar retorts to questions on Indian policy in matters, including the import of Russian oil, hogged limelight at the interactive session as part of the security conference in Munich. The EAM was in the presence of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.
1) 'Non-alignment to all alignment': In the moderator's question about India's foreign policy priorities in the backdrop of observations that it is traversing from 'non-alignment to all alignment', particularly on India's continuing procurement of crude oil from Russia, Jaishankar said: "Why should it be a problem? I am smart enough to have multiple options. You should be admiring and not criticising. Is it a problem for others? I do not think so," he said.
"I do not want you, even inadvertently, to give the impression that we are purely and unsentimentally transactional. We are not. We get along with people, we believe in things, we share things, ...but there are times when you are located in different places, different levels of development, different experiences, all of that gets into it," he explained.
"So Life is complicated, life is differentiated," he said. "Good partners provide choices, smart partners take some of those choices," Jaishankar said.
2) On BRICS: Jaishankar said the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India- China-South Africa) grouping started in an era when Western dominance was very strong. "Like any product, you test at a market, we tested it (BRICS) last year in the market, asking how many of want to join BRICS, and we got almost 30 countries who were willing to join BRICS," he said, adding, "Clearly, 30 countries saw value in it, there must be something good with that."
3) On the Israel-Hamas conflict: Jaishankar said there are different dimensions to it.
"Number one -- we must be clear that what happened on October 7 was terrorism; no caveats, no justification, no explanation. It was terrorism," he said.
"Number two, as Israel responds, it is important that Israel should have been very mindful of civilian casualties. It has an international obligation to observe humanitarian law," Jaishankar said.
"Number three, he said the return of hostages today is imperative."
"Number four -- There is a need for a humanitarian corridor, a sustainable humanitarian corridor to provide relief. And eventually, there has to be a permanent fix, a long-term fix. Otherwise we are going to see a recurrence," he said.
"Certainly India has long believed in a two-state solution. We have maintained that position for many decades and, I think, today many more countries in the world feel not just that the two-state solution is necessary, but it is more urgent than it was before," Jaishankar said.
Besides, External affairs minister S Jaishankar and Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi were also seen engaging in a brief interaction for the first time in months on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday.
