Neighbours have their domestic politics, we should be mature: Jaishankar

New Delhi: India’s neighbours have their own domestic politics, which have certain implications for New Delhi. Tewari had pointed out that India was the eighth country visited by the Maldives president after assuming office in 2023, and that he had travelled to New Delhi “under severe economic compulsion.” Tewari also said that Nepal’s new prime minister had first travelled to China and signed up for the Belt and Road Initiative. When Tewari raised a supplementary question about a research paper by a senior police officer in 2023, which said that India had lost access to 26 of 65 patrolling points from the Karakoram Pass to Chumar along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh, Jaishankar said he could only “answer for the government.” Jaishankar referred to the latest agreement with China for disengagement of forces at Depsang and Demchok, saying that the “understanding envisages that Indian security forces would be going to all the patrolling points in Depsang and would be going to the eastward limit, which has historically been our patrolling limit in that part.” India also has previous disengagement agreements with provisions for both sides to agree to “certain restraints” on a temporary basis. Regarding the interim government formed in Dhaka after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stepped down in August, Jaishankar said, “Certainly, it is our hope that with the new dispensation in Bangladesh, we will settle down to a mutually beneficial and stable relationship.” Jaishankar also responded to a question from Owaisi about Nepal’s decision to include Indian territories in maps on its currency notes, saying that this would not change India’s position. In a written reply to a question on the government’s “Neighbourhood First” policy, Jaishankar said that this policy guides the management of relations with countries in the immediate neighbourhood and focuses on creating mutually beneficial, people-oriented regional frameworks for stability and prosperity, including through the building of physical and digital connectivity.