S Jaishankar’s ‘bad neighbour’ jab at Pakistan amid IWT row: ‘Nobody can tell us what to do…’

EAM S Jaishankar

• Jaishankar criticizes Pakistan, citing persistent terrorism and IWT disputes
• India asserts its right to defend against terrorism, despite external opinions.
• Jaishankar attended Khaleda Zia's funeral, conveying Modi's condolences.

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Days after Pakistan accused India of consistently attempting to undermine the Indus Water Treaty (IWT), external affairs minister S Jaishakar has hit out at the neighbouring country.

“We are blessed with a lot of neighbours of various kinds. Unfortunately, we also have bad neighbours,” he said on Friday. The EAM was responding to a question on India’s neighbourhood policy at an event in IIT Madras.

“If a country decides that they will deliberately, persistently continue with terrorism, we have the right to defend our people and we will exercise it. How will we exercise that right is up to us, nobody can tell us what we should do or not,” the minister said.

A day after the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 last year, India took a series of punitive measures against Pakistan that included putting the 1960 vintage Indus Water Treaty (IWT) in “abeyance.”

The IWT, brokered by the World Bank, has governed the distribution and use of the Indus river and its tributaries between India and Pakistan since 1960.

“Many years ago, we agreed to a water sharing arrangement because the belief underpinning that was the gesture of goodwill. However, if there are decades of terrorism, there is no good neighbourliness. If there is no good neighbourliness, you do not get the benefit of that. You cannot say please share water with me and I will continue terrorism,” the external affairs minister said.

He also stated that India’s neighbourhood policy is guided by common sense. With good neighbours, India invests, helps and shares - whether it was vaccines during COVID, fuel and food support provided due to the Ukraine conflict, or the $4 billion assistance to Sri Lanka during its financial crisis, he highlighted.

“Most of our neighbours have a realisation that India's growth is today a lifting tide. If India grows, all our neighbours will grow with us,” he said.

Speaking about his visit to Bangladesh for the funeral of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, Jaishankar said, “I was in Bangladesh just two days ago to represent India at the funeral of former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia. They are right now heading for their elections. We wish them well in that election, and we hope that once things settle down, the sense of neighbourliness in this region will grow.”

Jaishankar recently represented India at the funeral of former prime minister Khaleda Zia and handed over to Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Tarique Rahman a letter of condolences from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

His visit came amid strain in ties with Bangladesh after the interim government headed by Yunus came to power.

India has been expressing concerns over attacks on minorities, especially Hindus, in that country.