External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Sunday, 4 October 2026 called for deeper cooperation among emerging and middle powers across a wide spectrum of domains — from international security and trade to healthcare, defence, and climate action. Addressing the opening session of the Munich Leaders Meeting 2026 in New Delhi, Jaishankar laid out what he described as a 'substantial agenda' that such nations can collectively pursue as the global order continues to shift.

The Case for Middle-Power Coalitions

Jaishankar argued that in an era defined by geopolitical friction and structural economic change, the world cannot afford to leave diplomacy entirely to its largest players. 'If there are conflicts going on, if there are frictions, if there are tensions, other than the biggest countries, can other nations pool their resources, back each other's diplomacy up, try to do something out there,' he said, making the case for collective engagement on international peace and security.

He contended that the global landscape — its agenda, architecture, and power distribution — is undergoing simultaneous transformation, creating both the need and the opportunity for emerging economies to act in concert rather than in isolation.

India-EU Trade Deal as a Model

A centrepiece of Jaishankar's remarks was the recently concluded India-European Union trade agreement, which he cited as evidence that long-stalled negotiations can be unblocked when economic necessity becomes undeniable. 'We had almost 25 years of negotiation and that negotiation came to a head because I think there was a realisation on both sides that in the transforming world it was essential that our economic engagement was intensified and the barriers to it removed,' he noted. He presented the deal as a template for how middle and emerging powers can deepen investment and trade ties by anchoring talks in shared strategic interest rather than legacy positions.

Supply Chains, Talent, Health Security

Jaishankar stressed that supply chain resilience offers a particularly fertile ground for cooperation. He observed that dominance in critical technology — including semiconductor chips and the machines required to produce them — is no longer the exclusive preserve of the world's largest economies. 'You don't have to be the biggest country in the world to dominate the world of chips,' he said, adding that health security similarly demands a more diversified production base for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and medicines.

On talent mobility, he highlighted a structural mismatch in the global economy: demographic demand is not where productive capacity sits. 'The best way to level that out is through the flow of talent and skills,' he argued, noting that advanced manufacturing requires a degree of cross-border mobility to remain sustainable over time.

Defence and Climate: Two Shifting Frontiers

The minister pointed to defence production as a domain undergoing 'dramatic transformations', with new producers emerging outside the traditional supplier countries and companies. He argued that the old orthodoxies around who manufactures and who consumes defence equipment are dissolving, creating openings for a new set of players. On climate, Jaishankar noted that a large share of the world's population already bears the consequences of climate change, making cooperation on climate action both a moral imperative and a strategic convergence point for emerging and middle powers.

What Comes Next

Jaishankar expressed optimism that the Munich Leaders Meeting's choice of middle-power cooperation as its opening theme would give participants 'a stronger purpose and a clearer direction' as deliberations proceed. The remarks signal that India intends to position itself as an active architect — not merely a participant — in any emerging coalition of middle powers, consistent with New Delhi's broader foreign policy posture of strategic autonomy. How such cooperation translates from framework to institution will be the defining question in the sessions ahead.