Neither of us wants to blow this out of proportion': Jaishankar on India-Maldives row
“Neither of us wants to blow this out of proportion,” External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said about the India-Maldives row in an exclusive and in-depth conversation with India Today. The minister said that a team from the Maldives visited India for two days, adding: “We have an understanding.”
During the free-wheeling interaction about his new book, ‘Why Bharat Matters’, Jaishankar spoke about various foreign policy issues, and where India stands on the international stage. The minister addressed key concerns regarding Maldives, China, Pakistan, and the possibility of Donald Trump’s return as a US president.
Speaking about the diplomatic tussle with the Maldives, Jaishankar said: “I think that over a period of time, there should not be an issue between us. I think the rest of the relationship is strong -- we have many other things happening -- and I hope that the focus shifts there rather than drag on as unnecessarily on this particular issue.”
The minister said India is “assessing whether we can have trained non-military personnel to fly medical evacuation aircraft (Maldives has asked India to evacuate its military personnel from the island).”
On diplomatic relations with China, the minister said while there are “serious problems” and that China is presenting a different posture on the Line of Actual Control, he has stood up to it. “I would say I’ve risen to the challenge in a military sense. The fact that we have been able to deploy so many troops around the year in very hard conditions with a posture which deters Chinese response in fact in many ways itself is an achievement.”
