“Last 10 years have been transformational”: EAM Jaishankar at his book launch

Calling his 10-year tenure under the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government “transformational”, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that from a time when Indians had to face difficulties regarding visas, today many countries are themselves pursuing New Delhi to figure out workplace mobility.
He further emphasized that today, a big opportunity lies in the area of the global workplace besides supply chains and digital flows.
The EAM was speaking at the launch event of his book ‘Why Bharat Matters’ in the national capital on Wednesday.
Jaishankar opened up on the range of subjects he has dealt with in the book, ranging from Article 370 as well as India’s border situation, especially along LAC with China.
Speaking at the event, Jaishankar said, “The last 10 years, where I have largely served in the government, have been transformational and I bring out in a descriptive account what those transformations have been. Within that transformation, some inflexion points…I would describe the Article 370 decision as one of them. What has changed on the border with China is another, the whole neighbourhood”.
“I tried to explain is really a new construct of foreign policy that has come into the making. Of course, since I am in politics…we also are experiencing attacks from beyond our borders which are often ideological and agenda-driven,” he added.
Highlighting the multiple achievements of India in the last few years, the EAM said that the situation of visas has completely transformed over the years, with multiple countries pursuing New Delhi to figure out workplace mobility.
“If there is Apple production in India, we are able to deploy our own 5G stack. If we could go to the moon in the manner in which we did. If we could produce a vaccine with the kind of accuracy, integrity on that mass scale…all these are symptomatic of what is happening,” Jaishankar said.
He added, “The big opportunity for me apart from getting into supply chains, digital flows is actually is the global workplace…5-10 years ago we were chasing the world saying you know you are being tough on Indians where visas are concerned. Today, there are a range of countries that are pursuing us saying ‘Let us figure out workplace mobility’. In the last 2-3 years, we have signed agreements with Germany, Italy, Portugal”.