Seeking to assuage India's anger over the detention of 12 Mumbai-based businessmen, the Netherlands on Saturday said there was no racial consideration behind the incident and that it was an "urgent preventive action" prompted by their "suspicious behaviour" in the plane.
A day after India lodged a strong protest over the detention and treatment of the Indians in Amsterdam, Dutch Ambassador Eric Niehe met Secretary (West) in the External Affairs Ministry Shashi U Tripathi and conveyed his government's "understanding for the concerns" expressed by New Delhi.
In its formal response to New Delhi's demarche on the incident, the Dutch government "drew attention to the apparently suspicious behaviour of the 12 Indian passengers which appeared to require urgent preventive action".
"They have conveyed that as soon as investigations were completed within one-and-a-half days, the passengers were not only released from detention but the Dutch authorities facilitated their earliest possible return to India," an External Affairs Ministry press release said on the meeting between Niehe and Tripathi.
The Ambassador assured New Delhi that his country does not "undertake any racial profiling and reiterated their close and friendly relations with India."
{{/usCountry}}The Ambassador assured New Delhi that his country does not "undertake any racial profiling and reiterated their close and friendly relations with India."
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