‘Board of directors is expanding’: Jaishankar pitches bigger role for ‘middle powers’ in changing global order
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said that the growing calls for ‘middle powers’ to play a more active role in global affairs require them to find partners with whom they can cooperate on key issues.
Jaishankar, however, said India prefers the term ‘powers in the middle.'
“More than a middle power, in a way, we are powers in the middle. What would really define a middle power? To use the Prime Minister's words, the countries who have the power to empower... Would India be a middle power? It's not a comfortable description,” Jaishankar said when asked why India does not like to be described as a ‘middle power.’
Jaishankar was speaking during a panel discussion at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in the national capital.
“Because if you are the most populous country in the world, you have a GDP of $4 trillion, give or take, and you have a lot of growth ahead of you, staring you in the face, then the middle power somehow seems to be limiting itself by that definition,” Jaishankar said adding that the ‘middle powers’ would now each apply their own mind, stake out their own interests, figure out their own policies, and then reach arrangements with each other.
What is meant by' middle powers'?
Earlier this year Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called for “middle powers” to band together to deal with the death of the so-called rules-based order led by the US.
Carnay's remark sparked a discussion about how nations such as Canada or the UK should deal with an increasingly unpredictable superpower under President Donald Trump. 'Middle powers' are sovereign states that exert significant international influence, sitting between small nations and dominant superpowers or great powers (such as the US China, Russia, France, and the UK)
Panelists also raised several examples of what this would look like, including more countries joining regional trade pacts such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP, as well as the Coalition of the Willing offering support for Ukraine against Russia. Still, there are few signs of a comprehensive replacement for the post-Cold War security order.
The reliance on military might to guarantee that order has been shaken, Jaishankar said, pointing to conflicts whose outcomes were very different from what had been expected. The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the US attack on Iran are both examples in which a larger country has struggled to subdue a smaller one.
The global order is changing as a result, according to Jaishankar, likening it to a corporate overhaul. “The board of directors is expanding,” he said. “There is a much more active shareholders discussion about where the company called Planet Earth is going” — even if the results might be untidy.
‘World of choke points’
Other participants in the panel, which focused on the role of middle powers, debated how such countries can exert leverage. It could involve finding ways to “become a chokepoint,” former UK PM Rishi Sunak said. “Finding those ways that you can make yourself indispensable” to other countries, in technology or other areas.
Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand said that all nations have their competitive advantages, but vowed that Canada won’t weaponize its own.
Jaishankar r also spoke about how ‘choke points’ have taken over the world, even in areas such as finance and sanctions.
“The board of directors is expanding. There is a much more active shareholders discussion about where the company called Planet Earth is going.”
“It is not just a world of middle powers. It is also today a world of choke points. The tendency to weaponize, we tend to think of rare earths as an example. But the fact is even finance and sanctions is a choke point…” he said.
(With Bloomberg and ANI inputs)