“Wake-up Call for Europeans”:S. Jaishankar on the Emerging New World Order

According to Die Presse, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar lectured European nations on the new world order, the Ukraine war, and the Chinese threat, and informed them that they needed a wake-up call to realise the shaking up of international order.
He told an Austrian journal that “Europeans needed a wake-up call to recognise that the unpleasant elements of life are not always taken care of by others”,and that “no area would be stable if dominated by a single power.” He claimed that amid the 2008 financial crisis, Europe adopted a defensive posture against the rest of the globe.
Above all, Europe desired to flourish inside its own borders while keeping international issues as far away as possible. Europe prioritised trade, promoted multilateralism, and used its economic might to mould the world on its own terms on problems like climate change and human rights. “Europe has a tendency to avoid becoming engaged in difficult security matters”, Jaishankar explained.
Speaking about the plate tectonic shift in the world power structure, Jaishankar used the United States as an example, saying that despite their differences, former US Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump both agreed that the United States can no longer play the same role on the world stage that it once did and must withdraw.
We are already in perilous times. It will take a long time to shift to the new world order. Because change is significant. “The Americans were the first to see that they needed to reorient themselves and seek collaboration with countries like us,” the EAM stated.
However, Jaishankar stated that Europeans recognised the shifting international order prior to the Ukraine war.
This revelation began long before the situation in Ukraine. “It was evident to me when the Europeans started talking about an Indo-Pacific strategy that they no longer intended to be merely observers on events in other regions of the world,” Jaishankar told Die Presse.
He said that the international order is still Western and that it must be replaced by a world of “multi-alignment,” in which countries pick their own “specific policies, preferences, and interests.”
Using India as an example, Jaishankar stated that New Delhi defied American and European pressure to condemn the Russian invasion at the United Nations, turned Moscow into its top energy supplier, and disregarded the perceived hypocrisy of the West since the Russia-Ukraine conflict began on February 24.
“I still want to live in a more rule-based environment. But when others start pressuring you to give up, to compromise on what are really deep interests in the name of a rules-based system, I’m afraid it’s crucial to resist that and, if necessary, to call it out “Jaishankar stated.
He further claimed that the conflict has sparked moral outcry in the West over Russian crimes, and that Western sanctions against Russia have driven up oil, food, and fertiliser prices, creating severe economic hardship in poorer nations. “If a USD 60,000-per-capita civilization feels it must look for itself, which I consider as acceptable, they should not demand a USD 2,000-per-capita society to pay a penalty,” he added.
Jaishankar further stated that India has no intention of cutting ties with Russia, noting that Moscow has provided New Delhi with weaponry during decades of non-alignment, while the US has cosseted India’s archenemy, Pakistan. Meanwhile, commenting on the turmoil in Ukraine, he echoed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statements that “the era of violence is over,” and he urged both countries to settle their problems via dialogue and diplomacy.