India is a bridging power in many ways, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said on Thursday, while stating that multilateralism would exist side by side with national interests. In this regard, he stated that just after Independence India put “trust” in multilateralism and took the “Kashmir aggression” issue to the United Nations (UN) and others made it into an “accession issue” for geopolitical reasons.
“Very literally in our first year of Independence, we put our trust on multilateralism and took the Kashmir aggression issue to the UN and others made it into an accession issue. And they did it for geopolitical reasons. The fact is that if you say they are playing multilateralism, they always did. We have grown up,” Mr. Jaishankar said, speaking at the Raisina Dialogue jointly organised by the Ministry of External Affairs and the Observer Research Foundation.
He was speaking in a panel themed ‘A Tapestry of Truths: Can the Two Hemispheres Agree?’ along with his counterparts from Netherlands Hanke Bruins Slot and January Yusuf Makamba from Tanzania; Jorge Quiroga, former President, Bolivia; and Anwar bin Mohammed Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the President of United Arab Emirates.
