India's entire neighbourhood is a conundrum: EAM Jaishankar

New Delhi, Aug 30 (IANS) Asserting that India’s entire neighbourhood is a conundrum and building strong relations with neighbouring countries will always remain “work in progress”, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar on Friday said the government’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy is built to protect ties amidst frequent changes, disruptive or organic.
“With Bangladesh, since its independence, our relationship has gone up and down. It is natural that we will deal with the government of the day. But, we also have to recognise that there are political changes, and they can be disruptive. Clearly here, we will have to look for mutuality of interest,” the EAM said during a book launch event in the national capital.
With regard to India’s relationship with Sri Lanka, Jaishankar admitted that the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had somewhat “difficult inheritance”.
“At this time, there are two problems. One in the public realm, which pertains to the international maritime boundary line, the fishing issue which is a recurring issue, particularly in the political space. And, from a strategic national security perspective, China’s presence and activities in respect of Sri Lanka.”
However, the EAM maintained that there has been a significant shift in public perception about India in Sri Lanka.
“It is centred around the fact that when they were in such deep trouble, we were really the only country which came forward and came forward in a massive way and in a timely way. So, if Sri Lanka has been able to recover significantly from where they were, a lot of it, I think, even the Sri Lankan politics and Sri Lankan public attributes it to the relationship with India,” said Jaishankar.
The External Affairs Ministers admitted that there have been many ups and downs in India’s relationship with Maldives, as well.
“We’ve had the 1988 intervention but yet we were very impassive in 2012 when there was a change of government. So, you can see that there is a certain lack of consistency here. It is a relationship in which we are very deeply invested and there is today a recognition in Maldives that this relationship is a steady force as they get into some more choppy waters where their own prospects are concerned, especially in terms of the economic challenges.”
With Afghanistan, the EAM said, India shares deep people-to-people and societal relations as there is a “certain goodwill” for India in the country.
“When we review our Afghanistan policy today, I thik we are very clear-eyed about our interests and not confused by any inherited wisdom that is before us. We must appreciate Afghanistan, with the presence of America, for us, is very different from the Afghanistan without the presence of America,” he said.
–IANS
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