‘All this is not India’s fault’: Shashi Tharoor on Maldives and border dispute – Gudstory

“Gratitude does not go very far in international affairs,” PTI quoted him as saying. He said India has done a lot for the Maldives – from thwarting a coup against its government, to supplying water to it on planes. Until – but that doesn’t help much in deciding such relationships.

The Congress leader was speaking at a talk show at the Kolkata International Book Fair. According to the report, he said that while relations with Maldives are not good at the moment, they are not too bad with Sri Lanka, while relations with Bangladesh are quite good.

Tharoor spoke about India’s position vis-à-vis smaller countries in the periphery, saying, “Relations with Pakistan are in a bad shape, Nepal is increasingly under Chinese influence and there is growing Chinese influence in Bhutan as well.”

Also read: Maldives opposition parties mark ‘anti-India’ pivot of Mohammed Muizzu government: ‘Will be a long-time ally…’

“Overall, we are not doing very well in the border areas, but that is not all India’s fault,” he said, adding that it is important that India’s foreign policy keeps its national interest in mind first.

on china

Shashi Tharoor said it is not possible for India to remain “truly non-aligned” with China sitting on India’s border. He said that due to chaos in the world, some of India’s foreign policy assumptions have been shaken.

“We are still non-aligned and a member of the Non-Aligned Movement. But what that means now is not very clear, because the two superpowers are no longer the US and the (then) Soviet Union. They are the US and increasingly China,” Tharoor said. PTI was quoted as saying.

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Tharoor said that in this situation, India cannot truly be non-aligned with a hostile China “sitting on India’s borders”. He said that if China were to adopt a “more overtly aggressive stance, India is likely to have to make difficult choices”.

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on India’s partnership

The Lok Sabha MP from Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram also highlighted that even though India is not part of a treaty like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), it has partnered with the US, Australia and Japan in the Quad (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue) .

“We have a partnership that matters, similarly we are in a situation where we are seen by the Chinese as more aligned with their enemies or with countries that control them,” PTI quoted Tharoor as saying. Trying to do.”

The Congress leader said India is also a member of a new grouping I2U2 that includes India, Israel, the United States and the United Arab Emirates. He said that India has become much closer to Israel than before. “I don’t know what the future of I2U2 is after the Gaza conflict,” he said.

Tharoor said strong bilateral relations exist between the two countries, with Narendra Modi being the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel and his counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu having visited the country twice.

‘Voice of the Global South’

Tharoor said that in view of international developments, India is also going through a state of ups and downs, PM Modi is trying to establish India as the voice of the global south. “This is an updated version of the Non-Aligned Movement,” the Congress leader said.

Tharoor reportedly said that the one thing India wanted after independence was not to be bound by any other country’s perspective on the world and that it wanted the right to decide for itself on the merits of each issue. Was.

“When we signed the 20-year Treaty on Peace, Friendship and Cooperation with the Soviet Union, the world assumed that we were leaning towards it, and similarly, many of the agreements signed now give the world the impression That we are leaning towards America, even though we claim to be non-aligned, Tharoor said.

(With inputs from PTI)

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Published: 27 January 2024, 10:37 PM IST