- Monday, May 20, 2024
The diplomat said New Delhi has been trying to have a “very strong connect” with the Maldives in the last one decade and it did it with a lot of success.
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIAN external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has said that one cannot guarantee that every country will support or agree with New Delhi every time. He said this amid India’s ongoing diplomatic row with the Maldives and while highlighting his government’s continuous efforts to build global connections.
Speaking at a townhall meeting in the Indian city of Nagpur in the state of Maharashtra on Saturday (13), a day before the president of the Maldives set March 15 as the deadline for India to call back its military troops from the maritime neighbour. Maldives’ new president Mohamed Muizzu is known to be pro-China and concluded a five-day visit to Beijing last week.
Jaishankar said India has been trying to have a “very strong connect” with the Maldives in the last one decade and it did it with a lot of success. He added that the politics may go up and down but that the people of the Maldives and the society generally have positive feelings towards India and understand what having good ties with the neighbour means.
Read: Chinese media slam India over Maldives row, say Delhi has ‘distorted mentality’
Speaking about development works that India has undertaken in other countries, the diplomat said, “We are involved today in building roads, electricity, transmission, supplying fuel, providing trade access, making investments, and having people holiday in other countries,” he added, stressing that “all these are parts of how you develop those relationships.”
“Sometimes, things do not go in a good way, and then you have to reason with people to bring things back to where they should be,” he was quoted as saying.
A major diplomatic row erupted between India and the Maldives last week after a few government officials of the Indian Ocean archipelago posted on social media controversial remarks against prime minister Narendra Modi following his visit to the Lakshadweep chain of islands and promoting its tourism.
The incident happened around the time when Muizzu went to China for a five-day state visit.
His government distanced itself from the remarks and suspended the three ministers — all junior ones.
Jaishankar’s ministry last week summoned the Maldivian high commissioner to India Ibrahim Shaheeb and conveyed strong concerns over the ministers’ remarks.
A major reaction emerged in India as its people gave a call for boycotting Maldives and promoting Lakshadweep, located about 750 kilometres from the Maldives, instead.
A few tourism bodies in the Maldives apologised to India over the controversy and called Indians “cherished brothers and sisters”.
Muizzu, however, asked China to send more tourists to his country.
