While delivering a lecture on the occasion of the first Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Memorial , External Affairs Minister Sushama Swaraj said the world was reeling under a story of protectionism and said India did not agree with American president Donald Trump’s “Me First” approach on the issue. She was referring to Trump’s speech at the United Nations in September when he said “As President of the United States, I will always put America first, just like you, as the leaders of your countries will always, and should always, put your countries first “. She said India believed in the concept of “We , Us and Ourselves”
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Sushama Swaraj said “I was sad when President Trump, in the UN General Assembly, said his slogan was ‘Me First’. There is a storm of protectionism at the global level which is centred around the concept of Me and Myself but India believes in the concept of We, Us and Ourselves. If everyone views the other as equal then there is no place for protectionism in it,”
The lecture was orgnaised by ICCR an the topic was ‘Soft Power Diplomacy: Strength of India’. Swaraj said that Indian culture, yoga, classical dance, movies, cuisine and Information Technology were a “treasure of soft power”.
She cited the example of Bahubali to show that the craze for Indian films abroad is not restricted to Bollywood. She said Chinese president Xi Jinping wanted Dangal to be screened at BRICS summit at Xiamen. “When I met prime minister Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh of Mongolia, he said he wanted to be an actor in Bollywood”. To the wish of the prime minister, Swaraj replied “we need some handsome leaders in politics too”.
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