India can serve its national interests by helping other countries and contributing to global good, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said.
"To my mind, doing good and serving your national interest are not alternatives. We serve our national interest by contributing to global good," Jaishankar said at the NDTV World Summit 2026 while responding to Swami Sarvapriyananda of the Ramakrishna Mission, based in Manhattan.
Swami Sarvapriyananda asked Jaishankar how India could use its popularity in spirituality to build stronger ties with other countries.
#NDTVWorldSummit | "To my mind, doing good and serving your national interest are not alternatives, We serve our national interest by contributing to global good": EAM @DrSJaishankar's response to Swami Sarvapriyananda#NDTVWorldSummit2026 @rahulkanwal @AdityaRajKaul pic.twitter.com/uiJmX5iObG
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The monk said India enjoys goodwill in the United States and many Western countries because of Vedanta, yoga and other spiritual traditions. He also mentioned the International Day of Yoga and said it helped improve India's image around the world.
The 55-year-old then asked Jaishankar if India could launch more initiatives such as the International Day of Yoga to make better use of the goodwill it already enjoys. Responding to the question, Jaishankar said countries can build friendships in many ways, beyond politics, military power and conflict.
“We've seen International Day of Yoga as an example,” he said.
Jaishankar then gave the example of the International Year of Millets. He said the initiative not only raised awareness about millets in India but also in Africa.
"Now, in our own country, what it did was it tremendously raised awareness of millets, which is more nutritious, which is more climate-friendly, which, by the way, was our traditional food, which we, somewhere, many people forgot about," the minister said.
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He further mentioned, "But, you know, when I go out of India, I've seen the millets message, for example, resonate very strongly in Africa, because they had a very, they still have a very strong millets culture, but that was overshadowed by, you know, grain and cereals, which came from elsewhere."
The minister also spoke about solar energy and the work of the International Solar Alliance. He said the initiative has helped promote solar energy and improve awareness of the technology and technical support available to countries.
Jaishankar added efforts to improve disaster response and preparedness as climate-related events and disasters take place around the world. "There is scope today for countries to come together and help each other," he said.
He said countries have several opportunities to come together and help each other, whether the issue is yoga, nutrition, energy or disaster management.
Jaishankar said India's support to other countries during the Covid-19 pandemic was one of the strongest examples of its contribution to the world.
“If there is a single thing, I will tell you, not just in the last decade, really in my lifetime in diplomacy, that we have done, which large countries in the world remember, it's what we did during vaccines,” he said.
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He added that even though the world has moved past the pandemic, people in different countries still talk about the vaccines and support India provided.
The minister asserted that India could make a difference by bringing countries together to work on common problems. “If the world is not going in a good direction, and we are seen as doing so, I think it's something good for the world, good for India,” he said.
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