UNDERLINING THAT India’s rise is deeply linked to the rise of Indian technology, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday said India’s geopolitical positioning will be a net assessment of politics of energy; economics and technological interests.
Speaking at the Global Technology Summit in New Delhi — organised by Carnegie India and the Ministry of External Affairs — Jaishankar said, “Geopolitics ultimately comes down to partners and choices. For India, who gives access; who provides markets and who collaborates are the key criteria.”
He said that in a world of civil-military fusion, the definition of strategic technologies has changed. Building deep strengths alone will drive re-balancing, he said.
He said the rise of India was deeply linked with the rise of Indian technology and the country cannot remain agnostic to the developments in the sector that has acquired strong political connotation.
India would like to use its G20 Presidency to reflect the interests and concerns of the global south that have been sidelined over the years, he said.
“The rise of India is deeply linked to the rise of Indian technology. It could be semiconductors, it could be 5G, artificial intelligence, commercial space launches, satellite fabrication,” Jaishankar said.
He said technology should be given substantial weight in deciding India’s geopolitical positioning as it would play a key role in striking alliances in a multipolar world.
“We cannot be agnostic about technology. We have to stop thinking that there is something neutral about technology…more and more things are technology driven and we need to understand that there is a very strong political connotation in-built into technology,” Jaishankar said.
He said the principle of economic strategic autonomy will hold the key to global rebalancing and big players will constantly strive to be more capable technologically.
