The Westphalian model of international relations are over: Dr. S Jaishankar

New Delhi, Nov 29: External Affairs Minister, Dr. S Jaishankar said that the rise of India is deeply linked with the rise of Indian technology. Speaking at the seventh edition of the Global Technology Summit in New Delhi, Jaishankar underlined the importance of technology in geopolitics and emerging world order.

We people, especially in India in the last two years have woken up to the fact, where does our data reside. Who processes our data and harvests it and what do they do with it. This is a very very key question, he added.

We live in an era where the Westphalian model of international relations are over, Jaishankar said while commenting on the European made global system.

"For us in this era of technological interpenetration, to say that all states are equal and everybody is a black box and it doesn't matter what happens inside the black box it does matter what happens inside the black box," the External Affairs Minister said.

"Theme picked is timely as technology today is at the heart of geopolitics. You could argue that it was always so, whether it was nuclear, the internet or space, or AI. If you look at quantum jumps in history, parallel with some time-lapse, quantum jumps in technology. It has led to a lot of policy outcomes," the External Affairs Minister said.

The three-day summit is a flagship India on Geotechnology and is co-hosted by the Ministry of External Affairs and Carnegie India. The theme for India's annual flagship event this year is Geopolitics of Technology.

While emphasising on that the countries have modelled their national technology decisions by applying technology, Jaishankar said, "when we think today of the competitive politics sharper contradictions, I think we should be more and more cognisant that is going to be driven by technology or also be visible or be reflected in the technology debates."

There is a very strong political connotation that is inbuilt into technology, Jaishankar said while adding that India cannot be agnostic about it.

He further emphasised that data is the new oil and strong political connotations are inbuilt into technology. "We have to stop pretending that there is something neutral about technology. Technology is no more neutral than economics or any other activity. You may speak about whether its data or oil or data as the new oil - the fact is more and more things are technologically driven and we need to understand that there is a very strong political connotation that is inbuilt into technology," Jaishankar said.

"I think that the right argument is that are you for collaborative globalization or are you for a globalization model that allows domination by a few players. How flat and broad is your globalization? I think that to my mind is the real debate. And that debate will be very much driven by technology," he added.

Neither globalisation nor technology should be considered as economic issues. They are very strategic issues and as a political scientist, I regard them as political science issues, rather than economic issues, he added.