NEW DELHI: Amid calls by Bangladesh for ex-PM
Sheikh Hasina’s extradition, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said Saturday her stay in India is her personal decision influenced by what transpired in the country last year.
India has so far not acceded to Dhaka’s demand for the extradition of Hasina, who was sentenced to death last month for crimes against humanity.
Asked if she could stay as long as she wanted, the minister said this was a different question. “She came here in a certain circumstance, and I think that circumstance clearly is a factor in what happens to her. But again, that is something in which she has to make up her mind,” he said. He also said India is a well-wisher of Bangladesh.
“As a democratic country... we would like to see the will of the people ascertained. I’m quite confident that whatever comes out... would have a balanced and mature view about the relationship and, hopefully things would improve,” he said at Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.
On the visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin, he said the India-Russia partnership has been among the “steadiest big relationships” in the last 70-80 years.
Unreasonable for nations to expect say in our foreign ties: EAMForeign minister Jaishankar disagreed that Putin’s visit could complicate India’s negotiations with the US on a bilateral trade agreement.
“I think everybody knows that India has relations with all the major countries in the world,” Jaishankar said at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit. “I think for any country to expect to have a veto or a say in how we develop our relations with others is not a reasonable proposition,” he said.
Jaishankar was asked if Putin’s two-day visit to New Delhi that focused largely on significantly enhancing the economic dimension of India-Russia ties will have a bearing on the negotiations with the US for the proposed trade deal. “Because remember, the others can expect the same. I think we’ve always made it very clear that we have multiple relationships. We have a freedom of choice,” he said. “We talk about what is called strategic autonomy and that continues and I cannot imagine why anybody would have reason to expect the contrary,” he added.
The minister acknowledged that the focus of the Trump administration has been on trade and noted that India’s approach in navigating it is totally driven by national interests. “I think clearly right now trade is the most important issue there. We have, it’s clearly very central to the thinking in Washington, much more than it was to earlier administrations, which is something which we have recognised and we are prepared to meet,” he said.
“But we are prepared to meet it on reasonable terms. I mean, for those of you who think that diplomacy is about pleasing somebody else I’m sorry, that’s not my view of diplomacy. I mean, to me, it is about defending our national interests,” he said.
The India-US relations are going through possibly the worst phase in the last two decades after Washington imposed a whopping 50% on Indian goods, including 25% levies for New Delhi’s procurement of Russian crude. The two sides are currently holding negotiations for the proposed a trade deal “We believe that there can be a landing point for our respective trade interests. Obviously, that is something which will be negotiated hard because it has an implication for livelihoods in this country,” he said.
“At the end of the day, for us the interests of the workers and the farmers and the small business and the middle class matters. When we look at a trade agreement with a country like the US, you have to be extremely judicious about your position, about what you put on the table,” he said.
On President Putin’s trip to India, Jaishankar said for a “big” and “rising” country like India, it is important to maintain good cooperation with as many important players as possible in the world in line with freedom of choice.
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