Time to cope with uncertain, unpredictable, violent, turbulent world: Jaishankar

New Delhi, Nov 11: India's External Affairs Minister, Dr. S Jaishankar said that it would be too premature to speak of India acting as a facilitator to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine. The countries impacted by the conflict can only hope to nudge the main players in a positive direction, Jaishankar also said.

The foreign minister cautioned that India will have to get its act together to cope with an uncertain, unpredictable, violent, turbulent world and a decade with a far more fluid international situation, including frictions and possibly worse.

He said that though some underlying issues in the military standoff with China on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) have been worked out, the overall bilateral relationship cannot be normalised till there is peace and tranquility in the border areas, observance of agreements and no unilateral attempt to change status quo.

In a conversation at the 20th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, Jaishankar said that countries that believe that this is not an era of war as was pointed out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that issues cannot be settled on the battlefield and there is a need for players to get back to the negotiating table, can articulate their concerns and try to shape the thinking of those more directly involved in a positive direction.

He added that he thought beyond that to suggest anything else, it is not justified. At this point of time. He further added that the global order and globalisation model have been more and more challenged since the international financial crisis of 2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic brought out into the open a lot of problems which till then had been kept firmly under the carpet. The supply chains were very fragile, production was overly concentrated and people were dependent on limited geographies.

He said that the Ukraine conflict added to stress factors and fragility can be enhanced by terrorist actions or even the climate crisis. Overall, I would say that in the short to medium term, I would be looking at a very unsettled world, at a lot of turbulence and volatility. I think this is a time when we frankly need leadership, experience, ability to guide this nation in rough seas. Believe me the rough seas-you can already feel the waves, he said.

"You are going to have really perhaps for this decade, a far more fluid international situation where there will be ebbs and flows, and combinations and issues and frictions and possibly worse, which is what we have seen. I do not see a settling down among major players in the near term," Jaishankar said.

At this time, it is particularly vital that we find out feet and stay strong, because there is this sense of long period of global uncertainty before us.