New Delhi:Days after a senior US official said the US would not allow India to become an economic competitor like China, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday responded by saying India’s rise was “unstoppable” and that the country alone would determine its growth path based on its strengths.
Jaishankar made the remarks during a discussion at the Raisina Dialogue, two days after US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said at the same forum that his country would not repeat the mistake of providing India with the same kind of economic benefits it provided to China, allowing Beijing to emerge as a major competitor.
While participating in a discussion on cooperation among countries in the Indian Ocean region, Jaishankar said, “When we talk today about the rise of states… the rise of states will be determined by states. The rise of India will be determined by India.”
“This will be decided on our strength, not on the mistakes of others,” he said without directly naming any country or individual, though it was clear he was referring to Landau’s comments during a conversation on India-US relations.
Jaishankar noted that the Indian Ocean is the only ocean that bears the name of a country because India is “situated right in the middle of it”, and India’s rise is a “raising wave” from which other countries in the Indian Ocean will benefit. “It is clear that those who work with us will get more benefits… I am not saying that there are no challenges to India’s rise, there are. But the direction of India’s rise is very clear. In a way, it cannot be stopped,” he said.
Landau, a lawyer who served as an envoy during both terms of US President Donald Trump, highlighted the US leader’s vision of an “America First” foreign policy, which emphasized that the United States is not a “charitable organization.”
While supporting the trade deal that Washington and New Delhi are finalizing, Landau said: “But again, India must understand that we are not going to make the same mistakes with India that we made with China 20 years ago when we said: We will let you develop all these markets, and then, the next thing we know, you are outperforming us on a lot of trade matters.”
“We will make sure that everything we do is fair to our people. Because at the end of the day, we have to be accountable to our people, just as the government of India has to be accountable to its people,” he added.
The government has also faced criticism in recent days after US Treasury Secretary Scott Besent on Friday announced a temporary 30-day exemption from US sanctions to “allow” Indian refiners to buy Russian oil. The opposition Congress Party, in particular, accused the government of allowing the United States to dictate the country’s foreign and economic policies.
Besant followed up his announcement by telling the media on Saturday that the US Treasury is allowing India to start buying Russian oil as part of Trump’s policy of “American energy dominance”.
“The Indians were very good actors,” Besant told Fox News. “We asked them to stop buying sanctioned Russian oil this fall, and they did. They were going to replace it with American oil. But to ease the temporary gap in oil around the world, we gave them permission to accept Russian oil.”
The Indian side emphasized that the country’s energy purchases are guided only by market conditions and international dynamics to ensure energy security. India also did not confirm or deny the Trump administration’s assertions that New Delhi had committed to stopping purchasing Russian oil as part of efforts to reach a bilateral trade agreement, and the government merely said that energy purchases were being diversified.
Former foreign minister Kanwal Sibal was among those who criticized Besant’s remarks, saying India was never among the US’s “allies” and terming terms like “good actors” and the US allowing India to buy Russian oil as “sponsorship”.
“He tells us it is [a] A temporary reprieve and they will return to arming us with force. He’s like a prisoner on parole. They should understand that such belittlement and talking down to other countries leaves long-lasting diplomatic scars,” Sibal wrote on social media.
