New Foreign Secretary excels in new diplomacy
The unnecessary controversy over the appointment of the new Foreign Secretary notwithstanding, there’s little doubt that there is hardly another senior Indian diplomat who is more qualified and more capable than Mr S Jaishankar to be the top bureaucrat in the External Affairs Ministry now. Across the board, he is acknowledged as much for his intellectual prowess as for his strategic strengths. He has a vision for how India should engage with the world, and he is capable of implementing it. He is also a powerful interlocutor, unafraid to speak his mind.
Anybody who still doubts his capabilities, need only remember that he was considered for the top job by the BJP-led NDA regime and also the Congress-led UPA regime. It is an open secret that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wanted him as Foreign Secretary in 2013, but had to backtrack due to internal party politics. At this point, what makes Mr Jaishankar's appointment particularly promising is that he brings to the table the skill-sets needed by the Government. His diplomatic experiences converge well with the priorities of the Modi regime, which can be listed as such (but in no specific order): The US, China and Japan.
Prior to taking up his new position, Mr Jaishankar was India's Ambassador to the US, where he played a stellar role. He was deputed to Washington, DC, in the middle of the Khobragade spat, but helped both establishments ease out of the mess. Afterwards, he handled with aplomb Prime Minister Narendra Modi's landmark US visit, which included a successful engagement with the diaspora in New York.
But Mr Jaishankar's bigger contributions to the India-US bilateral were made from New Delhi during his tenure as the Joint Secretary for the Americas Division from 2004 to 2007. At that time, he was involved in the negotiations for the civil nuclear agreement; he helped draft the India-US defence pact; and he set up the bilateral energy and economic dialogues as well as the CEO's forum. In short, he helped build the foundation of the India-US partnership in the 21st century that the Modi Government now wishes to take forward.
On the China front, Mr Jaishankar was India's longest-serving envoy in Beijing. He deftly handled contentious matters including stapled visas and the 2013 Depsang incursion. He took a strong position on border issues but also advocated deeper trade ties with China — which fits well with the Modi Government's policies. Having served as Ambassador to both China and the US, Mr Jaishankar can be trusted to strike a carefully calibrated balance in India's relations with both these powers. With regard to Japan, Mr Jaishankar — who was the Deputy Chief of Mission in Tokyo between 1996 and 2000, a particularly difficult phase given the backlash over the Pokharan nuclear test — is known to be on good terms with the office of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. This is a big plus, given Mr Modi’s new outreach.
