India’s neighbourhood first policy is to ‘proof the ties’ against potential upheavals: EAM

New Delhi, Aug 31 (Representative) India’s neighbourhood first policy is to “proof the ties” against potential upheavals and “hardwire” it, so that when quantum political shifts take place in a close neighbour New Delhi knows what to do, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said today. Speaking at a book launch, the EAM spoke about India’s ties with all its neighbours, including Pakistan. He said that India’s foreign policy with neighbours is a work in progress. “At no stage with a neighbour can we say that we have arrived; that we’ve sorted it out… it’s in the nature of life.“To sum it up – our neighbourhood first policy is to proof the ties against the ups and downs— that we know that this will happen,” he said at the launch of the book ‘Strategic Conundrum: Reshaping India’s Foreign Policy’, by Rajiv Sikri, former Indian ambassador. “When I sometimes read, saying ‘Didn’t you see that this was happening in Bangladesh’, and ‘That was happening in Afghanistan’, or ‘Something was happening in Maldives’. Of course we did! But we just didn’t see it now. We’ll have to build it into our planet.” He said most of India’s neighbours are democratic nations, “and in democratic politics, and there will be changes in regimes; sometimes there will disruptive changes, sometimes organic changes. and quantum shifts. You can’t begin to start thinking what we’ll do. We’ll have to hardwire it into our policy — that I expect that these will be the bandwidths in which the relationship will move, and what do I do when it hits one or the other extremity,” he said. He said regarding the debate about SAARC and BIMSTEC “that is a contrast which illustrates some of the challenges and the opportunities of regionalisation”. “The real issue is that of overlapping identities and versus forging new ones.” “Everywhere there is history at play, and there is politics that often contests history, and this is a perennial challenge for India’s ties with all of its neighbours.” On Pakistan, he said: “I think the era of uninterrupted dialogue with Pakistan is over.

Actions have consequences, and in so far as J&K is concerned, I think 370 is done. The issue is what kind of relationship can we possibly contemplate with Pakistan.“We are not passive, and whether events take a positive or a negative direction, either way, we will react to it.” On Afghanistan, he said “there is actually strong people to people relations. There is at a societal level, a certain goodwill for India.” He added: “When we review our Afghan policy, we are very clear-eyed about our interests. We are not confused by the inherited wisdom that is before us. And we must appreciate, that an Afghanistan with the presence of America for us, is very different from an Afghanistan without the presence of America,” he said, referring to US troops leaving Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover in August 2021. On Bangladesh, he said “there is a lot of recent interest in that relationship”, in reference to the political turmoil following Sheikh Hasina’s ouster on August 5 and an interim government taking over under the Army’s shadow. He said that Ambassador Sikri’s description of “Bangladesh is India locked and the North East is Bangladesh locked” is a succinct summary. “Since independence our relationship has gone up and down, and 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 the political changes can be disruptive, and clearly here, we have to look for mutuality of interests,” he said. On Myanmar, he said it is relevant and remote at the same time, “and the context of our North East is the overriding one”. “And today we have to find a balance between the government and other stakeholders, because that is the reality on the ground,” in reference to the continuing fighting between the army and the rebel forces there. On Sri Lanka, he said that it is one relationship where the Modi government “frankly had a somewhat difficult inheritance, and a lot of our challenges were how to reassure without in any way diluting our interests in that relationship”. Currently there are two problems, “one in the public realm that 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”.

He said there has been “a significant shift in public perception about India in Sri Lanka” following the help rendered when the nation was in deep financial trouble. “We were the only country that really came forward, in a massive way and timely way. So if Sri Lanka has been able to recover significantly from where they were, a lot of it, even the Sri Lankan public and the politics, attributes it to the relationship with India,” he added. On Maldives, he said they’ve had ups and downs ”not just in the nature of the regime, but also in our own approach to Maldives”. “But it is a relationship in which we are very deeply invested, and there is today a recognition in Maldives, certainly I saw that in my recent visit, that this relationship is a steadying force, as they get into somewhat choppy waters where their own prospects are concerned, especially in terms of economic challenges.” On Nepal, he said “Perhaps no relationship illustrates more that closeness cuts both ways”. “But today in Nepal, and we’ve just had FM Arzu Deuba here, there is a much deeper and broader understanding of power trade. They now export close to 1,000 MW to us, so they now realise the advantages which they accrue from that. “Also we’ve been much more forthcoming in terms of transit and trade. And whether it is power, fuel, movement of goods, the last decade has closely linked Nepal to us, as it has most of our other neighbours as well, barring Pakistan.”Bhutan he said is “politically the most consistent, the most positive, and we have in a more pro-rata way, the largest budget head pertains to Bhutan, which explains it all.”