Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday said India has always favoured rules-based global order and does not believe in giving "sermons or cut-and-dried" solutions to countries in need of assistance. New Delhi also holds that nations with superior military powers do not have the right to dictate solutions to others, he said in an apparent reference to China's aggressive behaviour.
Giving out this message, Rajnath said India has always stood for a rules-based global order in which the primordial instinct of "might being right" is replaced by fairness, respect and equality amongst all sovereign nations.
Without naming China or any other country, the defence minister said the "top-down approach" towards solving problems has never been sustainable, adding often it leads to "debt trap, reaction from the local population and conflict.”
He made these observations while addressing his counterparts and deputy defence ministers of nearly 30 countries at the Defence Ministers’ conclave on the sidelines of the ongoing Aero India air show in Bengaluru. Referring to India's emphasis on collective approach, Rajnath talked about how the COVID-19 pandemic originated in "one country" and how in no time, it had a devastating impact on the whole world, adding the crisis once again underscored the point that "we are all in the same boat and we either sink or swim together."
In the conclave named SPEED (Shared Prosperity through Enhanced Engagements in Defence), he also called for united efforts to counter pressing challenges like terrorism and said collective security has become "sine-qua non" for overall development and prosperity of nations. To counter the security threats, Rajnath underlined the need for devising new strategies, adding India does not believe in dealing with such security issues in the "old paternalistic or the neo-colonial paradigms". "We consider all nations as equal partners. That is why, we do not believe in imposing external or supra-national solutions to a country's internal problems," he said.
"We do not believe in giving sermons or cut-and-dried solutions, which do not respect the national values and constraints of the countries in need of assistance. Rather, we support the capacity building of our partner countries, so that they may chart out their own destiny," he added.
"There are nations which are richer, militarily or technologically more advanced than others, but it does not give them the right to dictate their solutions to the nations in need of support," Rajnath said.