Mumbai

India is engaging with international partners more intensively from a position of strength, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Tuesday, citing recently concluded trade agreements and asserting that the country’s “reform express” will continue to move forward.

Addressing the Global Economic Cooperation conference here, Jaishankar said the world is witnessing the growing weaponisation of production and finance, along with the leveraging of market shares and tighter export controls. He added that fresh uncertainties have also emerged on the demand side due to the increasing use of bilateral tariffs.

According to the minister, long-standing assumptions that once underpinned the global order have now become questionable, as strategic, political, economic and technological dimensions are transforming simultaneously. In such a scenario, solutions lie in de-risking and diversifying across multiple domains, an approach that is increasingly visible in the policies of many nations.

“From a position of strength, India is engaging international partners more intensively. This is demonstrated in the recently concluded trade deals,” Jaishankar said, adding that economic security is best served through stronger self-reliance combined with partnerships based on trust.

Following a recent phone conversation between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump, both sides announced a reduction in US tariffs on Indian goods to 18 per cent from 50 per cent. However, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi criticised the agreement, alleging that the government had compromised India’s interests through what he described as a “wholesale surrender”.

Jaishankar noted that India and the European Union concluded negotiations last month for a proposed free trade agreement that is expected to boost two-way commerce and strengthen economic ties. Over the past year, India has also finalised trade agreements with the UK, New Zealand and Oman.

The minister said the world has entered a volatile and uncertain phase, possibly the most turbulent in living memory. “The established global order is clearly changing. Replacements are hard to create, and we appear to be headed into a long twilight zone. This will be messy, risky, unpredictable, perhaps even dangerous,” he warned.

Jaishankar emphasised that India will play a more significant role in the global calculus of production, services, technology, skills and knowledge. He also noted that in the age of artificial intelligence, economic considerations are increasingly giving way to political and security imperatives.

Highlighting global trends, he said the US is determined to reindustrialise at any cost, China’s manufacturing and export focus remains strong, technology competition is intensifying and polarising, energy trade flows are being redefined, and migration and mobility are becoming contentious issues.

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“Each nation and each society will respond as per their interests and calculations,” Jaishankar said.