Tag: Raisina Dialogue 2023

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Indian Navy Chief underscores need for maritime cooperation

hief of the Naval Staff Admiral R Hari Kumar speaking at the Raisina Dialogue 2023, in New Delhi on Saturday. (ANI Photo)

Highlighting the ever-changing technology in the field of modern warfare, Navy Chief Admiral R Hari Kumar on Saturday underscored the importance of cooperation and working together in the maritime domain.

Speaking at a panel discussion on ‘The future of conflict: Lessons from the Third Decade’ at Delhi: Raisina Dialogue 2023, the Navy said, “In the maritime domain, challenges are not traditional or non-traditional. It is a problem for all of us. We always look to cooperate and work together in the maritime domain.” Modern warfare has changed from large-scale clashes of armies to suppression of civilian populations via chemical weapons, drones (used extensively in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war), etc.

“Whenever technology is developed, we find that there is always a counter to it. As we are seeing in the ongoing Ukraine war, when technology is brought into the battlefield it is immediately countered,” the Navy chief said.

Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral R Hari Kumar with General Koji Yamazaki, Admiral John C Aquilino, Admiral Sir Ben Key, Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee and Bec Shrimpton at the Raisina Dialogue 2023, in New Delhi on Saturday. (ANI Photo)

Underlining the importance of small groupings for an agile coalition and partnership, he said, “When we work in smaller groups then it serves the purpose and generates trust in partner countries. India as a country looks at everybody in the region to prosper together.”

Apart from Kumar, the other participants at the panel discussion comprised Bec Shrimpton, Director of the Sydney Dialogue, Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) and former Defence, DFAT, Austrade and senior adviser to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, General Koji Yamazaki, Chief of Staff of Japan Self-Defense Forces, Admiral John C Aquilino, Commander, US Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral Sir Ben Key, First Sea Lord and Chief Of Naval Staff, VADM/VAM Angus Topshee, 38th Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy,

New Delhi, Mar 04 (ANI): Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee at the Raisina Dialogue 2023, in New Delhi on Saturday. (ANI Photo)

Adm Sir Ben Key, First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, UK supported the ‘Make in India’ initiative.

“We support ‘Make in India’. India is reaching out for partnerships, but it is also making sure that it is resilient to external threats,” he said. (ANI)

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Jaishankar, Jolie discuss trade, connectivity

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday called on the Foreign minister of Canada, Melanie Joly, and held discussions on the G20 agenda and global developments.

The Canadian foreign minister also warned China against supporting Russia

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday called on the Foreign minister of Canada, Melanie Joly, and held discussions on the G20 agenda and global developments.

“Wide-ranging conversation with FM @melaniejoly of Canada. Discussed the G20 agenda and global developments. Bilateral issues including trade, connectivity and people-to-people ties,” tweeted Jaishankar. Earlier, at an event in Delhi, Joly took up the issue of the Russia-Ukraine war and called for the isolation of Moscow.

“The paralysis that is affecting particularly the UN Security Council is linked to the war in Ukraine. The more countries send a clear message to Russia, the more we will be able to isolate Russia politically and diplomatically,” said Joly.

She also warned China against supporting Russia, saying, “We should create a movement to get Russia out of Ukraine ultimately and to send a message to China that it is important that ultimately it does not support Russia.”

Meanwhile, the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) on Friday reiterated its support for the UN Charter, including the expansion of permanent and non-permanent seats of the 15-member world body.

The Quad Foreign Ministers carried out a comprehensive review of various issues, ranging from Indo-Pacific to ASEAN in a meeting presided by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Japanese Yoshimasa Hayashi and US State Department Secretary Antony Blinken attended the meeting held on the sidelines of the Raisina Dialogue 2023.

Talking about the reforms in United Nations Security Council, the Quad foreign ministers said in a joint statement, “We concur that the rules-based international order is anchored in international law, including the UN Charter, and the principles of sovereignty, political independence, and territorial integrity of all states. We are committed to cooperating to address attempts to unilaterally subvert the UN and international system, in consultation with our partners and through multilateral and international platforms.”

“We reiterate our unwavering support for the UN Charter, including its three pillars, and our steadfast commitment to strengthening the UN and international system through a comprehensive reform agenda, including through expansion in permanent and non-permanent seats of the UN Security Council. In this regard, we commit to active and constructive engagement in the Inter-Governmental Negotiations (IGN) process on Security Council Reforms with an overall objective of making the UN Security Council more effective, representative, and credible,” it added.

In September last year, a joint statement was issued following a meeting of Quad foreign ministers in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly committed to expanding the UNSC. (ANI)

ALSO READ: Abbott: China uses trade as a weapon

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Abbott: China uses trade as a weapon

ustralian Prime Minister Tony Abbott delivers a speech at the National Press Club in Canberra, Australia, Feb. 2, 2015. Embattled Abbott made the nationally televised speech in an effort to revive his plummeting popularity among the public and his party colleagues . (Xinhua/Xu Haijing/IANS) (lmz)

The former Australian PM said that China wants the whole world to be dependent on it but it wants to be independent of the world.

Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Friday that China uses trade as a weapon in a way that almost no other country does.

The former Australian PM said that China wants the whole world to be dependent on it but it wants to be independent of the world. “China wants the rest of the world to be dependent on it and it wants to be completely independent for its part of the rest of the world. And this is part of the clearly stated objective of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) to be the world’s number one power by mid-century. And I think we have to appreciate that China uses trade as a weapon in a way that almost no other country does. So I think we have to be very conscious of just how exposed we could be,” Abbott said.

He was speaking at the panel discussion on ‘Materials that Matter: Battle for Securing Critical Supply Chains’ during Raisina Dialogue. Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajeev Chandrasekhar and Tadashi Maeda, Chairman of the Board, Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) also participated in the discussion.

“I think the pandemic was but a foretaste of what could happen. Look at the disruption which is currently being caused by the Ukraine war. Any conflict across the Straits of Taiwan would bring about disruption many orders of magnitude greater than the disruption caused by the Ukraine war. We can take supply chains for granted in an era of globalization and connectedness, we can’t take them for granted in a period of potential conflict between systems and powers. And I really think that every country right now has got to ask itself some very hard questions,” Abbott said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech at a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC in Beijing, July 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Ju Peng/IANS)

He said that Australia wants to be as helpful as it can be. “I think Australia has this great sense of mateship, global mateship, as well as local and insular mateship,” he said.

“We discovered during the pandemic when all of a sudden everyone in the world wanted masks, gloves, PPE, ventilators, antibiotics…there was none to be had, none to be had because everyone wanted it and most of it was coming from China. And so there was this mad, mad, desperate scramble. Eventually supply started to come into equilibrium. But if there was another period of great disruption, well, then this would go from something that is nice to do to something which is absolutely, 100 per cent vitally urgent,” he added.

The Ministry of External Affairs has organised the Raisina Dialogue in collaboration with the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) from March 2 to 4. (ANI)

ALSO READ: Blair: Absurd to think that India is not a permanent UNSC member

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Blair: Absurd to think that India is not a permanent UNSC member

Former United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair (L) and former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen participate in a panel discussion of 'turbulence, temperament and temerity: Leadership in the age of uncertainty' at the Raisina Dialogue 2023, in New Delhi on Friday. (ANI Photo)

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has said that India’s position is potentially more powerful than ever with the G20.

Noting that the real challenge today is how to make sense of the shifting geo-politics, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has said that India’s position is potentially more powerful than ever with the G20 and that it is absurd to think that India is not permanent member of UN Security Council.

Blair, who was participating in panel discussion ‘Turbulence, Temperament, and Temerity: Leadership in the Age of Uncertainty’ on Friday during the Raisina Dialogue here, said India’s position in shifting geo-politics is absolutely critical because the progress the country has made in the last few years has been remarkable. He said the West has to share power.

“The trouble with the UN Security Council reform, which of course should happen…it’s absurd to think that India is not a permanent member but you could say that about other countries as well,” Blair said.

“But leave aside that because the problem always with reforming the UN Security Council is how do you get consensus? The West has got no option but to share the power. The question is how you make sense of international diplomacy in this new world,” he added.

Blair noted that India today is a bigger economy than Britain.

“It is a geopolitical power, it is a post-colonial country that dominates the original English sport of cricket,” he said during the panel discussion that included External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and former England Cricketer Kevin Pietersen.

He said that increasingly around the world when countries are worried about whether they have to choose between the USA and China, “I think India is a country seen by many as an objective friend”.

“And I think it’s got the opportunity now to lead the Global South in a way that’s never been true before,” he said

Former United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair (L) speaks on the panel discussion of ‘turbulence, temperament and temerity: Leadership in the age of uncertainty’ at the Raisina Dialogue 2023 in the presence of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen (2L), in New Delhi on Friday. (ANI Photo)

“Real challenge today is how to make sense of the shifting geo-politics and in that position India is absolutely critical because the progress in India in the last few years has been remarkable and extraordinary. And I think the position of India now, this is again my view as an outsider, is potentially more powerful than it’s ever been with the G20. This is, in a way, a demonstration of its authority on the global stage,” he added.

India had hosted G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting on Thursday and the Outcome document reflected the concerns of the Global South and consensus on other issues of global import including ways to tackle terrorism and climate change. (ANI)

ALSO READ: QUAD bats for UNSC expansion