The opportunities and challenges presented by globalisation are very much on the mind of India’s Minister for External Affairs, Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. He wants India to enter the global arena “with cards to play” and, to that end, has argued for India to take a stronger approach to building its national capabilities. Those national capabilities have been tested by COVID-19, which has infected over 1 million Indians and claimed nearly 140,000 lives.

But Dr Jaishankar also recognises the need for India to focus on greater international cooperation in solving the existential problems of the day, including climate change, terrorism and pandemics.

“The world is not going to carry on with business as usual,” Dr Jaishankar recently observed. “Those with a more self-centred view of world politics will have to come to terms with the needs of the day.”

The Lowy Institute was pleased to host Dr Jaishankar at a time of great ambition for India-Australia ties. In this virtual event, the Executive Director of Australia’s Lowy Institute, Dr Michael Fullilove, chaired a discussion ranging over topics such as India’s place in the world, its relations with China, the recently reconstituted ‘Quad’ grouping, COVID-19, and the future of India’s relations with Australia.

- About the Speakers -

Dr Jaishankar was Foreign Secretary from 2015 to 2018, Ambassador to the United States from 2013 to 2015, Ambassador to China from 2009 to 2013, High Commissioner to Singapore from 2007 to 2009 and Ambassador to the Czech Republic from 2000 to 2004. He is the author of a new book, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World.

Dr Fullilove writes widely on Australian and US politics and foreign policy in publications including The New York Times, Financial Times, The Atlantic and Foreign Affairs. Dr Fullilove is the author of several books including Rendezvous with Destiny: How Franklin D. Roosevelt and Five Extraordinary Men Took America into the War and into the World (Penguin).