S Jaishankar Warns Of Global Geopolitical "Storm", Outlines India's Role

Mr Jaishankar especially referred to the declining influence of the United States, the conflict in Ukraine, the fighting in Gaza, attacks in the Red Sea, tensions in the South China Sea, the challenge of terrorism in different geographies and advent of new technologies as the drivers of the "churn".

The world will witness a "very, very stormy" churn because of conflicts, power shifts and sharpening competition in this decade, which makes it all the more important for India to have a stable and mature leadership, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said.

In an exclusive interview to Press Trust of India, Mr Jaishankar painted a picture of the world radically different from the one we are living in now by the end of 2020s when asked to draw on his nearly 50 years of experience in diplomacy and politics to give an assessment of the global power balance.

"Multiple conflicts, tensions, divides! With all these variables that I am putting to you, I am painting to you, actually, a very, very stormy international scene for the balance of the decade," said Mr Jaishankar, a former ambassador to China and the United States, who was tapped for the political role by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019.