External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that no major issue in the world is decided without consultation with India.

“Many countries today see our weight, power, and influence. We were the 10th largest economy 10 years ago and we are the fifth largest economy now… In a very few years, we will be the third-largest economy. No major issue in the world is decided without some consultation with India. We have changed and the world’s view of us has changed,” Jaishankar said.

It is in India’s nature to be ‘independent’ and because of this, New Delhi has to manage its interests with different people instead of being “someone else’s subsidiary or enterprise”, he further said.

“When Prime Minister Narendra Modi talks of ‘Amrit Kaal’, think of these 10 years as the foundation. In these 10 years, the building of the next 25 years will be built,” he added.

“We are at least a 5,000-year-old civilisation, the most populous civilisation, physically one of the largest countries in the world, and the fifth-largest economy in the world. Our nature is to be independent. We cannot and should not be a part of somebody else’s subsidiary or enterprise. Because we are independent, we have to learn how to manage our interests by dealing with different people,” the EAM further said.

“A country that had three or four metro systems 10 years ago, has around 20 today. Every day in this country for the last 10 years, two new colleges have been opened… For all Indians, the world is not far away. It has come to us. Covid was one sign of the world coming to us,” Jaishankar said.