Shillong, Aug 22: Ministry of External Affairs Secretary (Economic Relations) Dammu Ravi has said global rules that enable all countries to trade one another have been undermined by the Trump tariff.
Ravi, delivering a lecture at the University of Science and Technology Meghalaya (USTM) on “India’s Economic Diplomacy”, said that while supply chains are already choked because of geopolitical tensions the tariff is a new challenge.
A phase of authoritarianism taking a stronger expression on the global stage will have consequences, where “might is right” and “coercion over cooperation”, he said.
He pointed out the dynamic changes on the global stage and how dramatically the world is changing in the 21st century, stressing the change from geopolitics to geoeconomics, dominating with a greater weightage than geopolitics, set to influence every other relationship in the world.
Ravi spoke about the shifts in global power politics from Trans-Atlantic to Indo-Pacific due to several factors, as well as the surge in nationalisation in the global arena. He pointed out that while some people may think globalisation has come to an end, it could not, according to him, because as long as technology is advancing, there will continue to be interdependence and closeness.
He said, “Across the world, the richer countries are becoming richer, and developing countries are even more vulnerable, which is why the idea of the Global South is so important.”
While technology is shaping lives, Ravi said it will pose challenges like job losses due to the displacement of humans by AI and fake news. He said the challenge is to integrate human values and principles with the all-expanding, ever-changing artificial world.
“The world is not only going to be unequal but challenging for future generations and young people should be even more prepared with knowledge, information, ideals, and principles to face the 21st century,” he told students.
He also raised concern over digital divide, where three billion people in the Global South of the world do not have Internet, which would leave them behind. Rising public debt is 102 trillion dollars, while it is 29 trillion dollars in the developing countries, which will hike their cost of living.
