"Indians need to take more interest in foreign policy": EAM Jaishankar

New Delhi [India], March 2 : External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, while commending India's foreign policy, highlighted the crucial need for individuals to be well-informed about global affairs.
He emphasized that it is essential for the average person to actively engage with foreign policy matters.
"Certainly, all Indians need to take more interest in foreign policy. it is very common all over the world, there is a belief that foreign policy is something complicated, esoteric, that should be left to certain people to deal with...which is not entirely without some justification," Jaishankar said at an event in Delhi on Saturday.
He said, "...But, to me, a number of events happened that showed why it's important for the average person to get involved, pay more attention to foreign policy...and some of those events, if you look, were the Covid."
The EAM said that Covid showed that even if a person had no interest in the world, the world had decided to not "leave you alone."
"Covid showed that if you were a person in some remote part of India, with absolutely no interest in the world. The world had decided to not leave you alone, the world actually entered your doorstep, so the idea that there is a world, and there is a home...it is necessary for us to put that behind us," the EAM said.
"The Indians who go out should be aware that something can happen in the world..." Jaishankar emphasised adding that "even people who may not think they are professionally connected to the foreign policy should take an interest in foreign policy."
Coming out in wholesome praise of Prime Minister Modi's leadership and his outreach towards India's global partners in times of distress, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said New Delhi demonstrated to the world that it could not only look after itself but could also 'save the world' in times of need.
Speaking at an event at Hubli in Congress-ruled Karnataka on Wednesday, Jaishankar said at a time when the world was worried about India's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the country stood up as a provider for the globe and shipped vaccines and other life-saving drugs to 100 countries.
"India, which the world was worried about, gave vaccines to 100 other countries," the EAM said at the event.
As he got up to speak, the EAM highlighted how the entire world feared that India might bear the brunt of the pandemic but that did not happen.
"When the Covid pandemic arrived, the world assumed that the country that would suffer the most would be India. The reason for this is that we have a huge population. People thought that we were not capable enough. We had fewer doctors. Leave alone the vaccines, even the masks were not manufactured here. There was a shortage of ventilators."
"But under the leadership of PM Modi, India showed the world that it could not only look after itself, but it could also save the world," he added.