It is time for India to become a “Rule Maker”: FS Vijay Gokhale at #RaisinaDialogue2019
He is talking in session “The road 2030: Challenges, Partnerships, and Predictions” along with French diplomat Maurice Gourdault-Montague and Sir Mark Sedwill, UK National Security Advisor.
In this discussion, Vijay Gokhale mainly talked about India’s position and participation in today’s multilateralism. He said, “It is time for India to become part of the universal rulemaking process. It is the rules-based order, India would have a stronger position in multilateral institutions.”
He added, in the 21st century, the world in general and Indians in particular, if we can not write a rule of the game any game, it’s a space, cyber or crime, we will actually reduce to the followers.
He said while addressing the issue of the position of India, he stated, “ it is time we to become part of the rulemaking process, so we can influence global events., but of course, there is a question, we allowed to be a part of rule-making process, that’s where the current system of multilateralism failed.”
About addressing the question of partnership, he specified, “couples of partnerships I am looking at includes; the G20, the Indo-pacific partnership and on the philosophical level-a partnership between science and technology, the humanities must return.”
On the question about foreign policy, if the government changed, he stated to that the broad concerns of India in the past 70 years, Foreign policy is determined by India’s determination to maintain his decisional and strategic autonomy.
When questioned triggered about India’s changing position in the international level, he strongly quoted that, ‘our alignment is the issue not based on ideological but based on global issues, which gives us a capacity to flexible, give a capacity to maintain our decisional autonomy.’
He added we are not India in 1950-60, we are a big stake in all part of the world on all issues. We ought to align with groups, countries, and issues where national interest is a concern.
He also gave a caution about the future international relations in the words, “if we want to represent ourselves in this type of multilateralism, we need to get ready on domestic level first”.