India will engage with the world on its own terms and the country does not require anyone's approval to do so, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar asserted on Wednesday. "It is better to engage with the world on the basis of who we are rather than try to please the world as a pale imitation of who they are. The idea that others define us and we need approval, is an era that we need to put behind us," he said at the Raisina Dialogue.

Jaishankar also said in the next 25 years, India should be at the next stage of globalisation. India should be about capability building, he said. Talking about India at 75, he said: "When we look at India at 75, we are not just looking at the 75 completed years, but 25 years ahead. What have we done, where have we faltered?" He said that one difference that he can pick is that Indians have asserted to the world that they are a democracy. "There is a gut sense that democracy is the future." About Ukraine crisis, the minister reiterated: "The best way forward apropos Ukraine crisis is to stop the fighting and get the dialogue going."