New Delhi: External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar said Sunday that there is a substantial agenda for emerging and middle powers to cooperate in today’s world.
Addressing the opening session of the Munich Leaders Meeting 2026 Sunday, EAM Jaishankar laid out a roadmap for cooperation among emerging and middle powers, spanning various sectors like international security, trade, resilient supply chains, healthcare, talent mobility, connectivity, climate action and defence.
“What could be the agenda for emerging and middle powers? I would share my thoughts in terms of a few ideas which occurred to me. One obviously would be international peace and security. That if there are conflicts going on, if there are frictions, if there are tensions, other than the biggest countries, can other nations pool their resources, back each other’s diplomacy up, try to do something out there.”
EAM Jaishankar noted that the negotiations between India and the European Union came to a head as there was a realisation on both sides that deepening of economic engagement was needed in the transforming world.
“Another obvious area, of course, is investment and trade itself. And a good example is what happened this year between India and the European Union, that we had almost 25 years of negotiation and that negotiation came to a head because I think there was a realisation on both sides that in the transforming world it was essential that our economic engagement was intensified and the barriers to it removed. But, there are different domains, I would argue, enough cause for middle and emerging and middle countries, middle players to come together,” he said.
He highlighted that the reality of the world today is that demand is not where there are demographics and said that the best way to level that out is through the flow of talent and skills. He said that advanced manufacturing also requires a certain amount of mobility to remain sustainable. He stressed that emerging and middle powers can cooperate in supply chain resilience.
“Supply chain resilience is one. As I said, different countries have different strengths. You don’t have to be the biggest country in the world to dominate the world of chips or to even produce the machines which are necessary today for semiconductor production. You can have areas like health. Today, health security warrants a much more diversified production of APIs and pharmaceuticals.”
EAM Jaishankar said that middle and emerging powers can cooperate in connectivity and climate action. He stated that a large part of the world experiences climate change and there is dominant thinking and compulsion in the world to cooperate on climate action.
“Even in a field like defence, because the old… who produces and who consumes in defence, the old systems, the orthodoxies are changing; a smarter defence comes into being. New producers are coming up, and new producers are not located necessarily in the same countries and in the same companies where they used to be in the past.”
“Defence space is, again, an area which has seen some dramatic transformations. So, I would argue that there is today a substantial agenda for emerging and middle powers to cooperate. The world is changing. Its agenda is changing. The landscape is changing. The architecture is changing. And I’m very glad today that we have this issue as a starting point before us because I hope that it would give our gathering a stronger purpose and a clearer direction as we begin our deliberations,” he added.
