I'll have problems at home: Jaishankar's witty Japan quip at forum draws laughter

Bloomberg News Editor-in-chief John Micklethwait, during a panel discussion, quoted Jaishankar's formulation of India's foreign policy as "engage America, manage China, cultivate Europe and reassure Russia."Jaishankar's witty Japan quip at forum draws laughter (Photo: Ministry of External Affairs, India/YouTube) New Delhi,Oct 14, 2026 12:49 ISTExternal Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had a witty correction to make at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum when the moderator left Japan out of his one-line summary of India's foreign policy. The minister was quick to point out the omission as he joked that he could land in trouble at home if he failed to set the record straight, given that his wife is Japanese.Bloomberg News Editor-in-chief John Micklethwait, during the panel discussion, quoted Jaishankar's formulation of India's foreign policy as “engage America, manage China, cultivate Europe and reassure Russia.” With a subtle smile, the minister pointed out that Japan was the fifth country in his original formulation, drawing laughter from the audience.“I was once challenged to put Indian foreign policy into a single sentence. So, that sentence was actually my answer to the challenge which was, and by the way, you stopped at four countries and the fifth country was actually Japan. And if I don’t correct you, I am going to have problems at home. I need to get that on record,” he said, referring to his wife Kyoko Jaishankar.Kyoko Somekawa, who is of Japanese origin, met Jaishankar while he was serving at the Indian Embassy in Japan. Explaining the thought process behind his formulation, Jaishankar said he had wanted to sum up India's foreign policy in a way that was concise, memorable and reasonably accurate. However, he stressed that the phrase was never intended to suggest that managing these relationships was easy.“So, what I was trying to do is come up with something snappy, catchy, reasonably accurate in a single word. And there was also something I did not say. I never said it was easy. So I said, engage America, manage China. I never said, ‘Oh, engage America, it is going to be a stroll in the park’,” he said. #WATCH | Delhi | Bloomberg New Economy Forum | On handling US-India relations, External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar says, "...I never said it was easy. So I said, engage America, manage China... In 2020, I was looking at a world... I was looking at Brexit, Donald Trump's election, the backlash against globalization, and kind of partly forecasting, partly analyzing, okay, where's the world going and how does India react to this? So your question, in a way: how difficult is it to engage America? You make it sound as though we are the only country having problems with the United States. The reality is the United States has repositioned itself. It's changed the manner in which it engages the world, the basis on which it engages the world. I think every country, in a way, has to recalculate and reset its relationship with the United States." (Source: MEA/YouTube)— ANI (@ANI) October 13, 2026Jaishankar also said that he wrote the formulation in 2020 and that a significant part of his book examined how the world had become more complicated.“I wrote this in 2020. In fact, a large part of the book is devoted to how much more difficult the world has become. There is a full chapter there on America, on China, a little less on Europe, a full one on Japan,” he added.At the forum, S Jaishankar also discussed several other subjects, including why he was uncomfortable with India being described as a “middle power”.- Ends