Indian External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar has remarked that the G20 economies have overtaken the G7 bloc amid the ongoing economic and political rebalancing of the global order.
"There has been discernible, even if uneven progress in economic and political rebalancing of the global order. The G20 has overtaken the G7 and many new groupings and mechanisms have come into being. The list of the top economies of the world has undergone change. And India itself has moved up six positions in the last decade," Jaishankar said while delivering the Pandit Hriday Nath Kunzru Memorial Lecture on the theme 'Bharat and the World' at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Monday.
The Indian diplomat stated that the ongoing global changes were "real", but they were still "imperfect and incomplete".
"While many objective conditions have improved from India's perspective, the struggle for cultural rebalancing has only just begun," he went on to state.
Jaishankar reasoned that the global changes that India was seeking to effect should begin at home.
He asserted that New Delhi could respond to these global changes by following an economic policy of 'atmanirbharta' (self-reliance).
"And politically, a more rooted and an authentic representation that will contest the propaganda. Bharat will never shy away from questions. But equally, Bharat has the courage to question the questioner,” Jaishankar said, outlining India’s emerging approach to geopolitics.
He emphasised that the world had become more "volatile and uncertain" due to the changes in Afghanistan (US troop withdrawal), Covid aftershocks, the Ukraine crisis and the Gaza conflict.
The minister said that the world was increasingly looking upon India for "independent and confident thinking" amid sharpening geopolitical rivalry between China and the US.
Jaishankar held up the example of India's purchases of Russian oil, noting that New Delhi prioritised the interests of the domestic consumer amid "external (western) pressure" on New Delhi over its energy ties with Moscow.