The global multilateral system is facing a 'logjam': EAM S Jaishankar

A lot of our challenges today emanate today from how countries have used that for their benefit at the expense of the international system, EAM S Jaishankar said

Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday said the global multilateral system is facing a 'logjam' and plurinational alliances will forge their own realities.

Speaking at a panel discussion at the Raisina Dialogues, he said global rules pertaining to trade have been gamed. "A lot of our challenges today emanate from how countries have used it (rules) for their benefit at the expense of the international system," Jaishankar said.

While speaking about reform of the United Nations, he said it is a common sense proposition given that the number of UN members has grown 4x since its birth with 50 member nations.

The minister said while multilateralism is the 'lowest common denominator', national interests, with the calculations and competitions of countries, will exist side-by-side".

He added that the plethora of country groupings and global partnerships launched in the previous decade show multilateralism is weakening. 

"There is a logjam up there. So everybody is doing their own thing, finding their own friends, making their own groups, picking their own issues, and creating a new reality. It will be much more fragmented, but it will still be efficient," he said.

Jaishankar said nations will have to battle bit-by-bit to create groups which will push for change. "On many issues, you will get different combinations of countries and we'll have to live with a long period of incremental progress before we get to some kind of landing point," he said.

The incremental plurinational arrangements championed by India can help to build a new system that works for the global South, Tanzanian Foreign Minister January  Yusuf Makamba said: "Finding outcomes that are fair, and works for us (Global South), maybe that will be the building block of a new system that is fair and just," he said.

Speaking at the same panel, Anwar bin Mohammed Gargash, Diplomatic Advisor to the President, United Arab Emirates, said the number of vetoes implemented on the Ukraine crisis shows the lack of consensus, and global meetings to reconstruct the system will not  realistically take place. "In reality, the system is being eroded while our ability to introduce something new is diminishing," he said.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Netherlands Hanke Bruins Slot voiced similar opinions, and called for more inclusion of diverse nations in the UN.

Fading Western influence

Speaking at the same panel, Former Bolivian President Jorge Quiroga said the US and Europe are closed for trade business, from a South American perspective.

"You can't get a trade agreement through the US Congress. It's not Trump. It is the way the US Congress works. We, in South America, have had the longest trade negotiation in the history of humanity for 25 years now with Europe, and it hasn't come to fruition. China is open for business. They are buying the energy, the minerals and food from South America. This creates natural links," Quiroga said.

On the issue of India's persisting close ties with Russia a year and a half after its invasion of Ukraine, Jaishankar said India may not find common ground with the United States.

"The idea that everybody would agree on the most important issues of the day is a bit of a fantasy. The fact is competition is real. Camp politics is real," Jaishankar said.