Neighbours have their domestic politics, we should be mature: Jaishankar
Jaishankar was responding to a query from Congress lawmaker Manish Tewari regarding the state of India’s relations with its neighbours during question hour in the Lok Sabha
New Delhi: India’s neighbours have their own domestic politics, which have certain implications for New Delhi. However, it is important for India to remain mature and avoid getting involved in point-scoring, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar told Parliament on Friday.
Jaishankar was responding to a query from Congress lawmaker Manish Tewari regarding the state of India’s relations with its neighbours during a question hour in the Lok Sabha.
He said that the number of India-backed development projects, trade volume, and exchanges provide a clear picture of the country’s regional relations.
“Our neighbours also have their politics. There are ups and downs in their countries. It will have some implications for us, but it is important we are mature and we don’t get into point-scoring,” he said.
“I think the idea that there is a desire to somehow portray the foreign policy of this government in a bad light for political purposes is the member’s privilege. But it is not my nature to make foreign policy partisan,” he added.
Tewari had pointed out that India was the eighth country visited by the Maldives president after assuming office in 2023, and that he had travelled to New Delhi “under severe economic compulsion.”
Tewari also said that Nepal’s new prime minister had first travelled to China and signed up for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). He further mentioned that China holds 12.9% of Sri Lanka’s external debt, while Bhutan was in advanced negotiations with China to settle a border dispute, which could have implications for the strategic Doklam plateau. Tewari asked whether any neighbour had an “India First” policy.
Jaishankar responded by saying that before Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Nepal, there had been no high-level visits from India to Nepal for 17 years, and there were no high-level bilateral visits to Sri Lanka for 30 years until Modi travelled there.
“Visits are important, I accept it. Visits are also the subject of timing, convenience, and agenda... Do they give us priority? The answer is yes. With this government, in the Maldives, we have inaugurated the Addu Link Road and reclamation project. At 28 islands there were provided water and sewage facilities. By the way, the president of the Maldives was present at the oath-taking of this new government,” he said.
Jaishankar also highlighted that “Indian companies were driven out for an important project” in the Maldives in 2012, and that the Chinese-built Hambantota port in Sri Lanka in 2008, as well as Bangladesh’s support for terrorism until 2014, and Myanmar’s hosting of Indian insurgent groups, were all part of the regional context.
When Tewari raised a supplementary question about a research paper by a senior police officer in 2023, which said that India had lost access to 26 of 65 patrolling points from the Karakoram Pass to Chumar along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh, Jaishankar said he could only “answer for the government.”
Jaishankar referred to the latest agreement with China for disengagement of forces at Depsang and Demchok, saying that the “understanding envisages that Indian security forces would be going to all the patrolling points in Depsang and would be going to the eastward limit, which has historically been our patrolling limit in that part.”
India also has previous disengagement agreements with provisions for both sides to agree to “certain restraints” on a temporary basis.
Jaishankar also responded to a supplementary question from All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) lawmaker Asaduddin Owaisi regarding the situation of minorities in Bangladesh.
He acknowledged that this “has been a source of concern” and said that multiple incidents of attacks on minorities had been raised with the Bangladeshi authorities.
He mentioned that the foreign secretary had recently visited Dhaka and that this issue had been addressed during meetings. “It is our expectation that, in its own interest, Bangladesh will take measures to ensure the safety of its minorities,” he added.
Regarding the interim government formed in Dhaka after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stepped down in August, Jaishankar said, “Certainly, it is our hope that with the new dispensation in Bangladesh, we will settle down to a mutually beneficial and stable relationship.”
Jaishankar also responded to a question from Owaisi about Nepal’s decision to include Indian territories in maps on its currency notes, saying that this would not change India’s position.
He also commented on India’s need to review its “open regime” policy for the border with Myanmar due to the “very disturbed conditions” in that country.
“But we are sensitive to the requirements for the border communities. Part of the challenge is that there is very little government authority on the other side of the border. Most of what we have to do, we have to do ourselves, but definitely there is today a much greater presence there to secure our borders and to monitor the movement of people across the borders,” he said.
In a written reply to a question on the government’s “Neighbourhood First” policy, Jaishankar said that this policy guides the management of relations with countries in the immediate neighbourhood and focuses on creating mutually beneficial, people-oriented regional frameworks for stability and prosperity, including through the building of physical and digital connectivity.
Under this policy, India has helped neighbouring countries develop infrastructure projects, ranging from large-scale infrastructure to community-related assets and platforms, and has extended financial, budgetary, and humanitarian aid. This includes humanitarian aid for Afghanistan, development projects in Bangladesh in cross-border power, energy, and transport, assistance to Bhutan for developing its hydropower resources, maritime security, and connectivity cooperation with the Maldives, and aid to Myanmar for several connectivity infrastructure projects.