Chairman of Civitatis International Forum calls for India to Become a Superpower

Jan Mortier, Chairman of the Civitatis International Forum for the Ambassadors to the Court of St. James’s says, "India should become a Superpower."

Speaking in an interview Jan Mortier, who chairs a private discussion forum for Ambassadors and High Commissioners accredited to the Royal Court of St. James’s in London: The Civitatis International Forum, called upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi to, "...work towards bringing India to superpower status and to promote Indian values to the world."

Mr Mortier who is an admirer of India, said that: "India is a thriving mega-democracy of 1.25 billion people, perhaps India is the world’s greatest democracy, and the people have a mindset of optimism and progress."

When asked whether maintaining high Indian economic growth would be essential for superpower status for India, Mr Mortier said that "continued Indian GDP growth was helpful but not essential for an Indian superpower", and that: "India has created an economic miracle of industrialisation through state sponsored investment and the public, private and people partnership method that is seeing dozens of new cities, airports, hospitals, transport hubs and industrial corridors being constructed in India that will create homes, jobs and prosperity for millions of people."

In his speech to the policy forum of the India-Japan Global Partnership Summit that was hosted by the Prime Minister of Japan, where he represented Civitatis International as the only British speaker at the Summit, Jan Mortier said that: "The leaders of India and Japan should use their unique partnership model to create a new innovation economy based on research and development, and technological progress along with the view to returns from infrastructure and innovation investment for the long-term."

Mr Mortier went on to describe the potential impact of an Indian superpower on the world by saying: "India’s unique model of economic development and international partnership between nations has the capacity to transform the world into a sphere of cooperating partners rather than competing empires."

Mr Mortier believes that the road to Indian superpower status will be based on four key drivers: Values; Government and corporate partnerships; Long-term thinking and Security. When asked how this would work, he responded: "India should proudly promote its values, history and culture to the world and become a real force for peace on the planet. India can earn a permanent seat on the UN Security Council by helping stabilize conflicts around the world by investing in and projecting its capabilities for peace. As the world’s second most populous nation India should have a UN Security Council seat."

In the context of the way foreign policy is made in India Mr Mortier said that: "India should engage in long-term thinking about its foreign policy goals, complimented by strategic planning at the highest levels to address the coming security challenges that will face India and the region in the near future. India should take its place in the world, not according to the western or eastern paradigm but according to the rich tradition of Indian history and culture, combined with its game-changing model of intergovernmental and corporate partnership such as it has with Japan."

Finally, we asked Jan Mortier whether an Indian superpower would be western or eastern orientated or non-aligned. Mr Mortier responded saying: "Indian strategic interests are the strategic interests of the free world. However, they are also uniquely the interests of the developing world, so India should not shy from promoting its core values and vision of development and progress to the rest of the world in its foreign policy. The question is not will India become a Superpower, the question is when. India should become a superpower. I hope this will be soon."

Mr Jan Mortier is the Founder and Executive Chairman of The Civitatis International Forum for the Ambassadors’ to the Court of St. James’s: www.civitatis.ch