Jaishankar lauds India's foreign policy during evacuation efforts in Ukraine, Afghanistan

New Delhi [India], March 24 : External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday said that India's foreign policy helped during the evacuation of Indian nationals under Operation Ganga in Ukraine, Operation Devi Shakti in Afghanistan and Vande Bharat mission during COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking at inaugural St. Stephen's MRF distinguished alumni annual lecture here, he said, "Think for a moment as an Indian student happened to be still in Ukraine on February 24, 2021 -- concerned about your education prospects -- you have now found yourself in the middle of the serious conflict and it's not just you, it's 20,000 more of your fellow nationals and there are at the same time, millions of Ukrainians who are trying to get out of the country. Internal travel is itself dangerous and complicated. The borders are overcrowded due to ingestion and in highly impacted cities -- there is even the physical danger of just stepping out in the open due to shellings."
Jaishankar said that at times like this, governments swing into action to save their nationals.
"This is when you really look up to your government for support and for extrication and indeed this is when the entire foreign policy apparatus swings into action as it did through Operation Ganga. It does so by facilitating transport, including trains and buses. It intervenes at the highest level in Russia and Ukraine to ensure the seizing of fire for safe passage. It engages border authorities to ensure border crossing and in extreme cases, such as, there was a particular town called Sumy. It even traverses conflict zones to assure you of necessary logistics for your safety. Once you are out of Ukraine, it works with neighbouring governments Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland and Moldova to establish transit camps to organize the flight which is required for a safe return to home," said Jaishankar.
He told the audience to reflect for a moment on these efforts, the interventions, the relationships at various levels that have gone into this -- starting from the very top and thinking of what it needed to make all of this happen.
He also gave the example of Operation Devi Shakti under which Indian nationals were evacuated from Afghanistan when the Taliban laid siege to capital Kabul.
"Let me give you another example of Kabul on August 15 last year for whatever reason you found yourself stranded in the middle of the city when the Taliban took over. A huge effort was made by the Indian Government to bring exactly such people home. Quite apart from navigating the city, now controlled by The Taliban checkpoints. You could well ask how difficult could this be?"
The Indian minister further gave the intricate details of how such a difficult task was accomplished with the help of years of relationships maintained with the respective countries.
"Let me tell you how difficult it was, it was as challenging as combining access to secured American base that was on edge, surrounded by desperate Afghans, suspicious Taliban of using Tajik real support for rapid advances, of accessing Iranian airspace at short notice and quietly utilizing Qatari facilitation. Some of our nationals who are beneficiaries of seats and flights run by the US, France, UK and Emiratis and all these were very delicately negotiated. This was exceptionally complicated logistics, but it was more than that. Behind it was years of relationships that really delivered at the time of need, equally important, this represented the efficacy of our flexible and pragmatic policy -- Indian policy of multiple engagements."
Talking about Vande Bharat's mission, he said that it was the largest recorded evacuation exercise in human history.
"Operation Devi Shakti flights from Kabul have been stressful but still manageable at short notice, much more daunting was India's challenge in the face of demands generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Bande Bharat mission brought back millions of Indians from multiple countries through air, sea and land. It is in fact the largest recorded evacuation exercise in human history," said EAM Jaishankar.
He also explained about the complex set of activities for the evacuation and intensive engagement with authorities that made the largest recorded evacuation exercise in human history possible.
"The movement of people was only the tip of the iceberg, behind it were a complex set of activities that included organizing, gathering, testing, housing even feeding those who are waiting to be repatriated. Staring first at Wuhan and then moving on to Italy and beyond, this involved an intensive engagement with authorities -- local, provincial, national and it covered everybody from tourists, students to professionals and workers even pilgrims, fishermen and seafarers and it was not just limited to Indians coming back. Many staying abroad, in Gulf countries for instance were given support directly or by interceding with local governments. Here too, the results of cultivation by political leaders and diplomats paid off," he said.
Explaining the foreign policy he said, "most of you may not be directly connected to foreign policy. My message to you is that whatever you do in life, the influence of external events will be very considerable. There are few activities that are immune from the globalized world. Keeping this in mind, I would like to talk today about what to the average person is 'good foreign policy'. Perhaps we overcomplicate the answer, confusing the sensible pursuit of interest with very complex formulations. Forget the terminology and just look for the gut answers."
Jaishankar said that a "good foreign policy" must work for all.
"A good foreign policy must work for you all. Since we are all collective as a country, our national security must be assured. The pursuit of our aspirations must be facilitated, the foreign policy being the link to outside, it should enable us to draw what we seek. We would all like us to be strong, like to look good and would like to feel appreciated. Any policy which ensures all these goals has a lot going for it," said Jaishankar.
Earlier today, the external affairs minister in a written statement laid on the table of Rajya Sabha said that the government has been able to safely bring home 22,500 Indian citizens and 147 foreign nationals belonging to 18 countries from Ukraine since February 2022.