"This has not been an easy part of the world for the last decade. And this is a part of the world where… boundaries have not been settled, where terrorism is still practised, often, sponsored by States. This is a part of the world where… the rules-based order has been under continuous stress for more than a decade. And I think it’s important for the rest of the world outside Asia to recognize this. It’s not that problems are going to happen. The problems have been happening,” Jaishankar said in candid remarks in response to a question from former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt at the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi attended by a number of foreign ministers, former government leaders and security and strategic analysts from across the world. 

In calibrated responses to questions from European ministers and leaders on the crisis arising out of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Jaishankar on Tuesday pointed to the challenges in Asia and in India’s neighbourhood — in Afghanistan, from Pakistan, and from China — and suggested that the simmering problems in Asia were not being given the requisite attention by the rest of the world they deserved, even though the violation of the "rules-based order" - which the West was so fond of citing now in the case of Ukraine - was already happening in this part of the world. 

Responding to a question from Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt, Jaishankar said, “You talked about Ukraine, I remember less than a year ago what happened in Afghanistan, where the entire civil society was thrown under the bus by the world. We in Asia face our own sets of challenges which often have an impact on the rules-based order.”

Responding to another question from Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, Jaishankar said, “If I were to put those very challenges in terms of principles, when a rules-based order was under challenge in Asia, the advice we got from Europe is do more trade. At least we’re not giving you that advice. And, in Afghanistan, please show me which part of the rules-based order justified… what did the world do there?”

(SAM)