Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi
New Delhi, Oct 4: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday likened the US-China rivalry to a “Goldilocks scenario”, saying countries would not want the relationship to become “too hot” or “too good”, but remain at “the right temperature”.
“In the context of a US-China rivalry, I think we are looking at what is often called a Goldilocks scenario: You don't want it to be too hot; you don't want it to be too good. You want it somewhere in between, at the right temperature,” Jaishankar said in his address at the Munich Security Conference.
He also raised the question of where emerging and middle powers fit into the evolving global order.
“I would argue that today, most of them are focused on diversifying and de-risking in every sense of the term -- not just their economy or their security, but also building more resilient supply chains. In many ways, they are working out new arrangements; they are developing agenda-based cooperation. And the operating principle for emerging and middle powers should be, and perhaps is already, a reasonable degree of convergence,” he said.
Jaishankar said having an identity of views or a very strong convergence of interests was “too high a bar today”, adding that countries could work together if they had enough common areas of interest.
He said the process of de-risking, diversification and hedging was gradually leading to the emergence of a new global architecture.
“Now, the question flows from that as to who cooperates with whom. And obviously, amongst the emerging and middle powers, to the extent that they don't have a direct clash of interest. They have an obvious interest in strengthening their inter-state cooperation. But it is also natural that they would have cooperation with the United States and, of course, also with China,” he said.
The EAM also highlighted that a “third way” would increasingly become the norm rather than an exception.
He said countries that had so far relied on either the first or second approach would increasingly be open to pursuing a third option.
“And the third way, at one level, can be staying away from others, but since that is not possible in a much more interdependent world, I think how to engage while hedging, while diversifying. So what will come into increasing practice will be the idea of multi-alignment,” Jaishankar said.
He described multi-alignment as a situation in which countries maintain relationships with different global players even when those relationships may not always be easy to harmonise, but remain a reality or necessity.
He said this amounted to a strategy of “advancing by hedging”.
Jaishankar said the consequences of such an approach would also have to be assessed in the context of multilateralism, which is already under visible pressure.
He pointed out that the United Nations, the principal multilateral body, was “very visibly gridlocked”.