New faultlines are straining globalisation, says Jaishankar

New Delhi: A day after India decided to retaliate by raising tariffs on 29 US products, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar said on Saturday that “globalisation is under stress due to new and emerging geo-political and geo-economic faultlines”.

Speaking at the Confer-ence on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) Summit at Dushanbe, Tajikistan (Central Asia), he also described terrorism as the “gravest threat that we face in Asia today”.

This comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the issue of terrorism strongly at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit at Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan, another Central Asian nation.

India has been boosting its ties with Central Asia in a big way. On Friday, India and the SCO Summit host Kyrgyzstan decided “to raise (their) bilateral relations to the level of Strategic Partnership”.

India had decided to take retaliatory measures on trade against the US after it had decided to hike customs duties on steel and aluminium products from India. The Indian decision to raise tariffs on 29 US products will come into effect from Sunday.

At the CICA Summit in Dushanbe, Mr Jaishankar said, “Globalisation is under stress due to new and emerging geo-political and geo-economic faultlines. India supports a rule-based order in Asia, as in the rest of the world.”

On the menace of terrorism, the minister said, “Many CICA members are victims of terrorism and should be clear that terrorists and their victims must never be equated. CICA has always shown a strong commitment to combat terrorism and extremism and adopt a comprehensive strategy to combat terrorism.”

“Early finalisation of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism, proposed by India, is today even more essential and we seek your support in this regard,” he said.

He added, “We confront unavoidable challenges such as terrorism, conflicts, trans-national crimes and maritime threats. There are also issues of sustainable development including the lack of energy security, low intra-regional trade and deficit of connectivity. These must be urgently remedied for our common good.”