“Sometimes people get misguided…”: S Jaishankar on India-Maldives dispute

He also said that sometimes misunderstandings occur between the two countries (File)

New Delhi:

Highlighting that Indian military personnel and aviation platforms in the Maldives are working solely for the benefit of the local people, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar reaffirmed his belief that the dispute with the Maldives can be resolved through diplomacy. Will be done.

He also said that sometimes misunderstandings occur between two countries.

The External Affairs Minister was speaking at the program ‘The Rise of the Global South’ at the TV9 Bharatvarsha Conclave on Monday.

Responding to the Maldives controversy, Jaishankar said, “Humanity is humanity. Diplomacy is diplomacy and politics is politics. The whole world does not always run on responsibility…so if we are faced with such a situation, a solution will definitely be found.” Just diplomacy.”

He said, “We have to make people understand, sometimes people do not have complete information about things, sometimes people get misled by the words of others.”

Mr Jaishankar also described the priority operations carried out by Indian military personnel and aviation platforms in the Maldives.

“There are two Indian helicopters and one aircraft in the Maldives. Mostly, it is used for MEDEVAC (medical evacuation) purposes. The people of Maldives are the beneficiaries of this. But, these are military aircraft, so who will operate them? Obviously, the military personnel,” Jaishankar said.

He said that the Indian side is holding several rounds of discussions with the Maldivian side so that whatever differences there are between them can be resolved.

“They had some objections, so we said, ‘Let’s discuss and reach a solution. So, even though our intentions are good, the policy is clear, we get to such a situation, and we have to find a solution. I I strongly believe that we will be able to resolve this matter also,” the External Affairs Minister said.

It is noteworthy that Maldives President Mohammed Muizzu is considered close to China and he had also run an election campaign on the lines of ‘India Out’. Since coming to power, he has taken several steps which have been unconventional in terms of India-Maldives relations.

Removing Indian troops from the country was the main election campaign plank of Muizzu’s party and he had made a formal request to New Delhi in this regard on the second day of assuming office.

Currently, around 70 Indian troops are deployed in Maldives along with Dornier 228 maritime patrol aircraft and two HAL Dhruv helicopters.

Two high-level group meetings have already taken place between New Delhi and Male, while the third meeting is scheduled to take place later.

After the second meeting, the Maldivian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that India would “replace” its military personnel in one of the three aviation platforms in the Maldives by March 10 and complete the replacement by May 10.

But, the Ministry of External Affairs in its statement said that both India and Maldives have agreed on a set of “mutually practical solutions” to enable continued operation of Indian aviation platforms that provide humanitarian and medevac services to the people of Maldives.

Earlier, local Maldivian media had reported that President Mohammed Muizzu had asked the Indian government to withdraw Indian troops from the island nation before March 15.

Apart from calling for the withdrawal of Indian military personnel, a Maldives deputy minister as well as other cabinet members and government officials made a derogatory and distasteful reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Lakshadweep and his call to develop the Indian archipelago. A big controversy arose. As a global retreat for beach tourism.

However, the Maldivian government has distanced itself from this comment.

Earlier, Maldives had also announced that it would not renew the agreement that allows India to conduct hydrographic surveys with India.

Meanwhile, Muizu also walked away from a long convention by not visiting India on the first official visit and visiting China thereafter.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)