Foreign Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has spoke on the ongoing diplomatic pivot between India and Maldives and asserted “politics is politics”, and added that one cannot guarantee in every country, every day, everybody will support us or agree with India. The statement comes as Maldives set 15 March as deadline for India to pull back its troops from the island.
Foreign affairs minister Jaishankar was speaking at the Manthan: Townhall meeting in Nagpur, Maharashtra, when he said, “Politics is politics. I cannot guarantee that in every country, every day, everybody will support us or agree with us”.
“But, seriously, as a solution, what we have been trying to do in the last 10 years, with a lot of success, is to build a very strong connect, so that, though the politics may go up and down, the people of the country, the society, generally have good feelings towards India and understand the importance of having good relations with India,” EAM Jaishankar added.
Jaishankar further stated that India has been engaged in infrastructure development in other countries.
“We are involved today in building roads, electricity, transmission, supplying fuel, providing trade access, making investments, and having people holiday in other countries,” Jaishankar 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,” Jaishankar said.
India and Maldives’ enduring relationship took an acrimonious turn after a social media blowout ended in ‘derogatory’ remarks for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi by three Maldivian ministers. Despite the he Maldives government with their newly elected pro-China president Mohamed Muizzu distanced themselves from the ministers’ comment, however, the diplomatic fallout had its consequences.
The three Maldivian leaders, Malsha Shareef, Mariyam Shiuna and Abdulla Mahzoom Majid, posted insulting remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and joke about his visit to Lakshadweep.
Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu has asked India to withdraw its military personnel from his country by March 15, nearly two months after Male sought their removal.
According to the latest government figures, there are 88 Indian military personnel in the Maldives.
Just after being sworn in as the President of Maldives on November 17 last year, Muizzu, who is regarded as a pro-China leader, formally requested India to withdraw its military personnel from his country, saying the Maldivian people have given him a “strong mandate” to make this request to New Delhi.
