‘India not trying to control every political move of every neighbour,’ says S Jaishankar
The relations with China are ‘significantly disturbed’, the external affairs minister said.
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India did not provide financial assistance or engage in projects with neighbouring countries such as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to control their internal politics, said External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday.
Speaking at an event hosted by foreign policy think tank Asia Society Policy Institute in New York, the minister said that the financial assistance of about $4.5 billion provided by New Delhi to Colombo since 2022, when the island nation plunged into economic crisis, was not offered unconditionally.
“It was not that we had a political conditionality which accompanied that [financial assistance],” he said. “We were doing it as a good neighbour who did not want to see that kind of economic meltdown at our doorstep.”
The external affairs minister’s comment came in response to a question about the apparent lack of benefits India got in return for the assistance it had provided to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Jaishankar said: “I think what happens politically in Sri Lanka, that’s for their politics to work with at the end of the day.”
He added that it was not New Delhi’s intention to suggest that the political dynamics in the neighbouring countries must adhere to what is of benefit to India.
The comment came a day after Leftist leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake was sworn-in...
