Subrahmanyam Jaishankar (born 9 January 1955), better known as S. Jaishankar, is an Indian diplomat, politician and author, who is serving as the 30th Minister of External Affairs of the Government of India since 31 May 2019.[1] He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party and has been a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha since 5 July 2019. He previously served as the Foreign Secretary from January 2015[2][3] to January 2018.[4]
In January 2019, Jaishankar was conferred with Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian honour.[6] On 30 May 2019, he sworn in as a cabinet minister in the second Modi ministry.[7] As External Affairs Minister, Jaishankar has crafted the assertive and aggressive foreign policy.[8][9] He closely maintained the relation between India and China even after the Doklam Standoff.[10] He actively advocated the end of war between Russia-Ukraine and called for negotiation in between.[11] He condemned the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 and called it a terrorist attack.[12][13] Jaishankar is the first former Foreign Secretary of India to head the Ministry of External Affairs as the Cabinet Minister.[14][15]
Early life and education
Jaishankar was born in Delhi, India, to a prominent Indian civil servant Krishnaswamy Subrahmanyam[1][16] and Sulochana Subrahmanyam.[1] He was brought up in a TamilHindu family.[17] He has a sister, Sudha Subrahmanyam, and two brothers: the historian Sanjay Subrahmanyam and the IAS officer S. Vijay Kumar,[18] former Rural Development Secretary of India.[19][20]
After joining the Indian Foreign Service in 1977, Jaishankar served as third secretary and second secretary in the Indian mission to the Soviet Union in Moscow from 1979 to 1981, where he studied Russian. He returned to New Delhi, where he worked as a special assistant to the diplomat Gopalaswami Parthasarathy and as undersecretary in the Americas division of India's Ministry of External Affairs, dealing with United States. He was part of the team that resolved the dispute over the supply of US nuclear fuel to the Tarapur Power Stations in India.[16] From 1985 to 1988 he was the first secretary at the Indian embassy in Washington, D.C.[25]
Jaishankar was then Deputy Chief of Mission at the Indian Embassy in Tokyo from 1996 to 2000.[25] This period saw a downturn in Indo-Japan relations following India's Pokhran-II nuclear tests as well as a recovery after a visit to India by then Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori.[28] Jaishankar is reported to have helped introduce future Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe to his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh.[29] In 2000, he was appointed India's ambassador to the Czech Republic.
From 2004 to 2007, Jaishankar was Joint Secretary (Americas) at the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi. In this capacity, he was involved in negotiating the US-India civil nuclear agreement and improving defence co-operation, including during relief operations following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.[30][31] Jaishankar was also involved with the conclusion of the 2005 New Defense Framework[32] and the Open Skies Agreement,[33] and he was associated with the launch of the US-India Energy Dialogue,[34] the India-US Economic Dialogue, and the India-US CEO's Forum.[35] In 2006–2007, Jaishankar led the Indian team during the negotiations on the 123 Agreement with United States.[36] He also represented the Indian government at the Carnegie Endowment International Non-proliferation Conference in June 2007.[37]
Jaishankar was one of those considered for the post of India's Foreign Secretary in 2013 but lost out to Sujatha Singh, who became the third woman to serve in the key post.[38][39]
High Commissioner to Singapore
From 2007 to 2009, Jaishankar served as India's High Commissioner to Singapore.[40] During his tenure, he helped implement the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) that expanded the Indian business presence in Singapore,[41] and oversaw a defence arrangement by which Singapore keeps some of its military equipment in India on a permanent basis.[42] Jaishankar also promoted the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas,[43] and IIMPact[44] in Singapore.
Ambassador to China
Jaishankar was India's longest-serving ambassador to China, with a four-and-a-half-year term.[45] In Beijing, Jaishankar was involved in improving economic, trade and cultural relations between China and India, and in managing the Sino-Indian border dispute.[46][47]
Jaishankar's tenure as India's ambassador to China coincided with several major developments in relations between the two countries.[45] His 2010 briefing to the Indian Cabinet Committee on Security regarding China's refusal to issue a visa to the head of the Indian Army's Northern Command led to a suspension of Indian defence co-operation with China, before the situation was resolved in April 2011.[48] Also in 2010, Jaishankar negotiated an end to the Chinese policy of issuing stapled visas to Indians from Jammu and Kashmir.[49] In 2012, in response to Chinese passports showing Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin as parts of China, he ordered visas issued to Chinese nationals showing those territories as parts of India.[50] And in May 2013, he negotiated the end of a stand-off resulting from the encampment by China's People's Liberation Army on Ladakh's Depsang Plains, threatening to cancel PremierLi Keqiang's scheduled visit to India if Chinese forces did not withdraw[51][52] (See also2013 Daulat Beg Oldi Incident). Jaishankar also briefed the media after the conclusion of Li's visit to New Delhi in May 2013.[53]
Jaishankar advocated deeper Indian co-operation with China as long as India's "core interests" were respected,[54] and argued for better market access for Indian businesses operating in China on the grounds that more balanced trade was necessary for the bilateral economic relationship to be sustainable.[55] He was also involved in improving people-to-people contacts between India and China, promoting events that showcased Indian culture in 30 Chinese cities.[56]
Ambassador to United States
A 2014 photo of Jaishankar with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington D.C.
Jaishankar was appointed as India's Ambassador to United States in September 2013. He took charge on 23 December 2013, succeeding Nirupama Rao.[45][57] He arrived in United States amid the Devyani Khobragade incident, and was involved in negotiating the Indian diplomat's departure from United States.[58] On 29 January 2014, Jaishankar addressed the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he argued that "the grand strategy underwriting [Indian-American] ties is fundamentally sound" but that ties suffered from a "problem of sentiment".[59][60]
On 10 March 2014, he formally presented his credentials to US President Barack Obama at the Oval Office.[61] Jaishankar was involved in planning of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's maiden visit to United States in September 2014, welcoming him upon his arrival and hosting a dinner in his honour for members of the Indian-American community.[62][63]
Foreign Secretary (2015–2018)
Jaishankar was appointed as Foreign Secretary of India on 29 January 2015. The announcement of his appointment was made following a 28 January 2015 meeting of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.[2][3] Jaishankar is credited with building the much talked about "aggressive" foreign policy of the Modi government. His tenure extension of one year saw a transformation in the working of the ministry of external affairs.[8][9]
His appointment came three days before the date on which he would ordinarily have retired and meant the unprecedented termination of Sujatha Singh’s two year tenure as Foreign Secretary. Singh was offered a sinecure as compensation but preferred to resign from government service. Jaishankar is widely criticised by Nepalese analysts for being the "original planner of 2015 Nepal blockade".[64][65] His tenure expired in January 2018.[66]
Minister of External Affairs (2019–present)
Jaishankar and US Secretary Antony Blinken on his visit in 2021 in New DelhiMeeting of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) foreign ministers in New York City on 22 September 2022
In October 2020, Jaishankar and the Indian Minister of Defence, Rajnath Singh, met with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US Secretary of DefenseMark T. Esper to sign the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement on Geospatial Cooperation (BECA), which facilitates the sharing of sensitive information and intelligence—including access to highly-accurate nautical, aeronautical, topographical, and geospatial data—between United States and India. The agreement had been under discussion for over a decade, but previous concerns over information security impelled the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)coalition government to block it.[70] In response to the dialogue, Chinese spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign AffairsWang Wenbin criticised the move and advised Pompeo to "abandon his Cold War mentality, zero-sum mindset, and stop harping on the "China threat".[71]
In November 2022, during a joint press conference along with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, Jaishankar praised Russia as an "exceptionally steady" and "time-tested" partner of India and advocated a return to dialogue and peace between Russia and Ukraine.[72] In June 2023, the Associated Press (AP) reported that Jaishankar had announced that India will remain committed in its stance on not inviting Ukraine to the 2023 G20 summit that is to be held in New Delhi, India.[73] Jaishankar firmly defended buying oil from Russia even after the sanction by western countries during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and criticised Europe for double standards.[74][75][76] During Globsec 2022 forum in Slovakia, responding to a question on India's official position on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, he said that "Europe has to grow out of the mindset that Europe's problems are the world's problems but the world's problems are not Europe's problems."[77] German chancellor Olaf Scholz echoed Jaishankar's views on Europe and said, "he has a point".[78] Jaishankar responded to Austria's national broadcaster ORF, "What Europe is doing is also moving into the Middle East and diverting production out of the Middle East and raising prices. European actions are putting pressure on the global oil markets".[79] During his visit to Germany for the Munich Security Conference, he emphasised that Europe must recognise that India cannot adopt the same perspective on Russia as Europe does.[80]
In January 2023, Jaishankar called Pakistan "The Epicenter of Terrorism" in an interview with Austrian broadcaster ORF. He added," I can use much harsher words than epicentre for Pakistan for its role in promoting cross-border terrorism as he underlined that the world needs to be concerned about terrorism."[81] Later in August 2024, he stated, "The era of uninterrupted dialogue with Pakistan is over. What I do want to say is that we are not passive, and whether events take a positive or negative direction, either way we will react."[82] In February 2023, American investor and philanthropist George Soros criticised Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his alleged Islamophobia, cronyism and authoritarianism.[83] Jaishankar dismissed his criticism and said that Soros is a "old, rich, opinionated and dangerous" person who uses human rights as a false pretext for regime change operations.[84] He condemned the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 as a terrorist act, but also talked about the plight of the Palestinian people, suggesting a "two-state solution" through "dialogue and negotiation".[85] Jaishankar said that "We have always supported a negotiated two-State solution, towards establishment of a sovereign, independent and viable State of Palestine within secure and recognised borders, living side by side in peace with Israel."[86]
In October 2024, responding on the relationship with China, Jaishankar said at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, "The overall relationship with China had “not been great” over the last few years because China had reneged on certain agreements it had with India about how to keep the border between the two countries tranquil".[87] In September 2024, on trade with China, he said at the Gulf Cooperation Council Joint Ministerial Meeting in Riyadh, "We are not closed to business from China. There is nobody who can say I will not do business with China. I think the issue is which sectors do you do business in and on what terms you do business. It is far more complicated than a black and white binary answer."[88][89] On 12 September 2024, Jaishankar interacted with Ambassador Jean-David Levitte at Geneva Centre for Security Policy. During the interaction, Ambassador Levitte referred to Jaishankar as a "star in the world."[90]
Personal life
Jaishankar and Kyoko (his wife, standing LS) with Antony Blinken in Washington D.C.
Jaishankar was married to his first wife Shobha until she succumbed to cancer. The two had met while studying at JNU.[91] Later, he married Kyoko, who is of Japanese origin[92] whom he met while working in the Indian embassy in Japan. They have two sons, Dhruva and Arjun, and a daughter, Medha.[93] Jaishankar speaks Russian, English, Tamil, Hindi, conversational Japanese, Chinese and some Hungarian.[16]
The Government of India awarded him Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian honour, in 2019 for his contributions to Indian diplomacy and leading role in restructuring India's global conversations.[94]
^Mathews, S. Jaishankar, Jessica Tuchman; Mathews, S. Jaishankar, Jessica Tuchman. "Ambassador Jaishankar on U.S.-India Relations". Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Retrieved 4 June 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Raj, Yashwant (26 September 2014). "PM Modi Arrives in US". The Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 26 September 2014. Retrieved 3 October 2024.
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