CHENNAI: India has every right to defend itself against terrorism in the manner it deems fit and does not need to justify its actions to others, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said on Friday, while reflecting on the difference between “bad neighbours and good neighbours.”
“If a country deliberately, persistently and unrepentantly continues with terrorism, we will exercise our right to protect our people. How we do that is our decision. Nobody can tell us what we should or should not do,” Jaishankar said while addressing students at IIT Madras during the launch of the institute’s Global Research Foundation.
Referring to the now-suspended Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan, the minister said goodwill could not coexist with hostility. “The treaty was a gesture of good neighbourliness. But after decades of terrorism, there can be no such goodwill. You cannot say, ‘Please share water with me, but I will continue with terrorism.’ That is not reconcilable,” he said.
Jaishankar noted that India also had “good neighbours,” citing examples of support extended during crises. He recalled India supplying vaccines to Sri Lanka during the Covid-19 pandemic and providing $4 million in assistance for cyclone relief.
Speaking about his recent visit to Bangladesh, amid strains in bilateral ties, the minister said he had gone to pay his last respects to former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. “Most of our neighbours now understand that if India grows, they grow as well. That was the message I conveyed in Bangladesh,” he said.
Describing India as a “human resource power,” Jaishankar said the country must play to its strengths. “When institutions of excellence begin expanding abroad, it adds significantly to the foreign policy toolkit,” he said, referring to IIT Madras’s global outreach.
Responding to a question from a student from Arunachal Pradesh about the harassment of an Indian passport holder from the state at Shanghai airport, Jaishankar said India had formally protested the incident. “Arunachal Pradesh is, and will always remain, a part of India,” he said.
