India's foreign minister. Built his reputation as a career diplomat on advancing India's pivot to America. Long known for patiently corralling sceptical compatriots into American arms, he shifted tone after Donald Trump's tariffs on India, saying India desired "a fair and representative global order, not one dominated by a few." On August 21st 2025 he met Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, in Moscow; the pair said their countries were aiming to increase bilateral trade.
By late 2025, months of diplomatic turbulence with America had turned a reputation for diplomatic foresight into a political vulnerability. "Even those who support closer ties with the US and the West are holding their noses," said Rajesh Rajagopalan of Jawaharlal Nehru University.
At the Raisina Dialogue, a government-backed conference in Delhi (March 5th-7th 2026), Jaishankar sounded calm about a move from global "order to disorder", arguing that the post-1945 international system was an order "by the West, for the West, from the West". Those rules lasted 70 years, or a mere one per cent of Indian history, he noted. If the system is ending, that is unsurprising and may create opportunities for India and the global south. "Life moves on," he said. His sangfroid was not widely shared among India's foreign-policy establishment.
Man has made his bedlam; let him lie in it.