When the UK’s minister of state for South Asia Tariq Ahmad stepped into the Kennedy Room in the same hotel to meet Jaishankar, he began by congratulating India for G20
New York: When external affairs minister S Jaishankar stepped into a meeting room on the fourth floor of the Lotte Palace Hotel in New York to attend the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) ministerial on Friday, he explained to his counterparts why he had arrived in the city just that morning.
Jaishankar told them about the special session of the parliament and how India had just passed a law reserving one-third of the seats for women in parliament and state assemblies. After hearing him, South Africa’s minister of international relations and cooperation, Naledi Pandor said that was a very “progressive step” by India and congratulated Jaishankar. And in the small room, with just over a dozen delegates from the three countries, Pandor led a round of applause for India.
If it was the women’s reservation bill that drew India accolades on one end — the issue also came up in Jaishankar’s conversation with Australian foreign minister Penny Wong — it was the success of the G20 summit under the Indian presidency that was a talking point on the other.
When the UK’s minister of state for South Asia Tariq Ahmad stepped into the Kennedy Room in the same hotel to meet Jaishankar, he began by congratulating India for G20. The Indian minister, in turn, told him it was thanks to all members of the group, who showed a willingness to give a little and termed the entire process “an education”.
Or when Bahrain’s foreign minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani began his bilateral meeting with Jaishankar at the same venue, his first comment was about the G20. “Well done,” the Bahraini minister remarked. He then hailed the India-Middle East-Europe economic corridor.
Even as discussions around Canada’s allegations against India have dominated the headlines — and it is indeed a big talking point across the world of diplomacy in New York — India’s brand is also defined by other issues. From progressive steps towards enhancing women’s representation to multilateralism, Delhi’s story has traction.
