External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said that India has resolutely responded to an exceptionally difficult challenge along its northern border with China in the last three years in the wake of the military stand-off at eastern Ladakh.
Addressing the annual general meeting of FICCI last evening, he asserted that the country has been maintaining the kind of military deployment that is necessary for national security.
Dr Jaishankar explained how India, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has sought to create global awareness against terrorism or gone ahead for cooperation against the menace with the US, Japan and Australia under the Quad framework though there was a narrative that it could annoy one country, obviously alluding to China. “If somebody else is uncomfortable, that’s their problem,” he said.
“At the end of the day, we have to do what we have to do, however difficult and tough that is. It is about the confidence of being able to exercise choice after choice,” he said.
He emphasised the concept of “Bharat” as more than just a geographical entity but rather a belief and an attitude that defines India’s approach to the world.
“To me, ‘Bharat’ is actually a belief and an attitude. To me, ‘Bharat’ has an economic dimension. It has a political meaning. It has cultural, social, I would say even personal expressions…At the end of the day, the term ‘Bharat’ means don’t let other people define you. Try and define yourself. That it has to come from itself because that very term Bharat which is so laden with symbolism actually captures centuries of what we are all about as a people…” Dr S Jaishankar said.