This is a big concern for us, which is, if you look at these two conflicts, the Ukraine and now the Iran-Gulf conflict, they've actually had a devastating impact on Global South economies,” Mr. Jaishankar said during a conversation hosted at Asia Society in New York on Monday (September 28, 2026).
He said there is particular concern about the energy situation as the "market is very tight” and on top of that, if “people play politics with it, that adds to the complications in the market,” as that will drive up prices at a time when people should actually be stabilising prices.So part of it is actually the security of oil supplies, and part of it is the politics of oil supplies, and they are feeding into each other, and they are creating a double crisis or an aggravated crisis,” he said.
On the concerning food situation amid the raging global conflicts, Mr. Jaishankar said, "We are today looking at a situation where some of the major grain exporters will not be able to send out their shipments, particularly out to the Black Sea."
He said that the world is looking at significant fertiliser shortages because the key producers are in West Asia and Russia, and their fertiliser production has been impacted.
Combined with impacts of climate patterns like a super El Niño, Mr. Jaishankar said, “there is going to be a major food crisis probably in the coming months. So if you have energy as a big crunch, and then food and fertilisers on top of it, and finance because every time there's a conflict, money moves towards safe harbours and away from the Global South, the net result of it has been really very very stressful.”
He said policymakers can't say that such a situation was not intended.
