External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday said that to compete with China on the economic front, India should focus on manufacturing, a key sector which was ignored by governments before PM Modi came to power in 2014.

“If we have to compete with China, which we should, then its solution is that we should focus on manufacturing here. Our approach towards manufacturing has changed after Modiji came to power. Before that, people did not give much emphasis on manufacturing,” Jaishankar said during his interaction with industry leaders at an event in Surat. There is no other way to counter China on the economic front, he added.

Jaishankar was speaking at a corporate summit on “Bharat’s Economic Rising,” organised by the Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGCCI).

“If we talk of rising Bharat, it will rise through technology. You cannot build strong technology on weak manufacturing. At any cost, we should put special emphasis on manufacturing, because that is the only economic response,” he further said.

Noting that tension at the border with China has caused abnormality in India-China relations, he said India’s thinking is absolutely clear that unless there is peace and stability in the border areas, the ties between the two Asian powers will not improve.

“As you know, there is tension at the border (with China). And this has caused abnormality in our relations. For that our thinking is very clear that unless there is peace and stability at the border, the relations will remain in the same deteriorated condition,” he said.