- Saturday, March 01, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Indian external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Friday (12) indirectly targeted China saying when nations disregard legal obligations or violate longstanding agreements, it causes immense damage to trust and confidence.
Addressing the 6th Indian Ocean Conference in Dhaka in Bangladesh, he also said a significant shared concern through the Indian Ocean is that of unsustainable debt generated by unviable projects.
“When nations disregard the legal obligations or violate long-standing agreements. As we have seen, the damage to trust and confidence is immense,” he said, apparently referring to China’s alleged violation of border pacts with India.
New Delhi has been criticising Beijing’s deployment of a massive number of troops and its aggressive behaviour along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh in violation of pacts on border management.
India has firmly told China that its violation of the border pacts has eroded the entire basis of bilateral ties and that all issues relating to the frontier must be resolved in accordance with the existing agreements.
“There are lessons from the last two decades that we ignore at our peril. If we encourage opaque lending practices, exorbitant ventures and price points that are unrelated to the market, these are bound to bite us back sooner rather than later,” Jaishankar said.
The Indian diplomat also said this was time to reflect and reform not to repeat and reiterate.
The conference is also being attended by Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister of Bangladesh; Prithvirajsing Roopun, the president of Mauritius; Faisal Naseem, the vice president of the Maldives and ministers from across the world.
