Mumbai: Mr. Jaishankar did not hold back while targeting Pakistan in his speech and labelled the country as ‘cancer’ which has now spread to it’s territory. Islamism and terrorist activity has been backed by the country as Mr. Jaishankar said which results in dearly consequences for the region. Jaishankar has made these comments during the Nani A Palkhivala memorial lecture on 19th March in Mumbai.

Jaishankar said, “Pakistan is the outlier in the neighbourhood with its nurturance of cross border terrorism, that cancer is now beginning to eat away at its own polity surrounding Pakistan is a common interest to all to India in desisting from that activity,”.

He noted that in the past decade how India was able to strengthen its relationship with other countries while still maintaining stable ones across the globe. These include ‘mutual respect, mutual sensitivity, and mutual interest’ as principles which govern Indian diplomacy.

Jaishankar also remarked that it was essential for India to invest in critical and emerging technologies to be able to compete globally. “India is not western but its strategic goals ensure that it is not western hostile,” he said as he shared the thoughts of the nation’s position on international alliances.

The External Affairs Minister expressed his displeasure about the manner in which financial institutions are weaponised and warned that India should enhance its internal performance and reduce its external exposure.

Jaishankar stated, “India sees and calls itself as ‘vishwabandhu’ which translates to friend of all and trustworthy on the world floor.” He further remarked this how the nation has been able to foster maximum number of friends and reduced the number of disputes to the best of its capabilities while ensuring national interest remains paramount.

Further, he emphasized India’s increasing interest in cooperating with regional and great powers. “There is quite a bit progress which has been made in the past decade on the various fronts on a multitude of relationships without anyone being singled out. There have been particularly difficult circumstances when it has been necessary to restore the balance,” he said.

He also discussed how India remains active in expanding its diplomatic relations and the strengthening of partnerships to attain a prominent status internationally.