“Unipolar world a distant history…”: EAM Jaishankar

New Delhi [India]: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Sunday that today, the unipolar world is a “distant history”, and a lot of the analysis needs to overcome the burden of “past constructs”.

The EAM further said that international financial institutions have not been able to respond adequately to concerns emanating from rising debt and market volatility.

Addressing the Kautilya Economic Conclave closing plenary session, Jaishankar said, “The unipolar world is distant history. The bipolar world was even more distant in the bipolarity of the US-Soviet Union. And I don’t think US, China will really end up bipolar.

I think there are too many next-run powers with sufficient clout and autonomous activity and regions of their own dominance and privacy for that to happen”.

“To my mind, a lot of our analysis has to overcome the burden of past constructs…the reality is yes at one level, we are far more globalized,” he added.

The EAM further stated that today’s situation has changed and the dominance of regional players won’t allow any external, or global players to enter.

“If you look today at what is happening in the Middle East, a lot of it is actually, in a sense, the activities are intrinsic to the Middle East. If you compare it with 1973 or 1967, they are very different.

So the key regional players on regional situations are actually today going to be so dominant compared to the past that they’re not going to leave that much space for global players or external players to come in. And I think you can see that happening in Africa as well,” he said.

Jaishankar further stressed on the direct disruptive impact of climate change on the international economy, as well as the concerns of the global economy due to rising debt and market volatility.

“We have long debated that climate challenges as a trend undermine the well-being of our planet. However, as weather patterns shift, they can affect the loads of production as well as the supply chains that emanate from them.

Given the increasing frequency of such weather happenings, this is now a risk that we need to build into our calculations,” Jaishankar said.

He added, “The working of the global economy has itself added to the concerning side of the ledger. The last few years have witnessed rising debt often resulting from a combination of imprudent choices unbiased borrowings and opaque projects. Market volatility has been difficult for smaller economies with a narrow trade basket to handle.

Those highly exposed to tourism or remittances have experienced the consequences of slowdowns very strongly. International financial institutions have not been able to respond adequately, whether due to paucity of resources or lack of priority”.