External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar rejected the binary choice between national self-interest and global altruism at the NDTV World Summit 2026. Speaking to Swami Sarvapriyananda of the Ramakrishna Mission, Jaishankar asserted that the two are not alternatives but mutually reinforcing. "We serve our national interest by contributing to global good," Jaishankar said, framing India's diplomatic posture as one of active humanitarian engagement rather than passive reliance on military or economic leverage alone.
The conversation pivoted to India's unique cultural capital in the West. Jaishankar acknowledged the global brand power of yoga, referencing the International Day of Yoga as a diplomatic asset that transcends traditional state-to-state negotiations. He extended this logic to nutrition, highlighting the International Year of Millets. The initiative, he noted, did more than promote a crop; it revived a forgotten traditional food in India while resonating strongly in Africa, where millet cultures had been overshadowed by imported grains.
Jaishankar pointed to energy and disaster response as further arenas for this cooperative diplomacy. He cited the International Solar Alliance as a vehicle for technical support and climate awareness. But it was the pandemic response that he identified as his career's defining moment of soft power. "Not just in the last decade, really in my lifetime in diplomacy, that we have done, which large countries in the world remember, it's what we did during vaccines," he said.
The minister argued that in a fractured global landscape, India's role as a stabilizer is itself a strategic asset. By facilitating cooperation on non-political issues like climate resilience and public health, India builds trust that pure political diplomacy cannot. "If the world is not going in a good direction, and we are seen as doing so, I think it's something good for the world, good for India," Jaishankar concluded, signaling a long-term strategy where humanitarian aid is treated as core foreign policy infrastructure.