SOURCE: ENS
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday said that rise of China has affected the entire world “very profoundly” and has impacted its immediate neighbours.
He also said that gap in the development of India and China over the last three decades has “implications” for the relationship. Speaking at the Mindmine summit, Jaishankar, without mentioning Nepal, referred to the situation between the two countries in the wake of the map controversy, saying “…bear in mind a lot of it is also politics, their politics, our politics – sometimes the interplay of. Often, it would be, you know, sharp positioning, which may be sort of magnified by the media. You know, we can’t push these things away, I mean this is politics at work, it’s not unique. I mean every region would have its own.”
However, he said that the two sides need to create “structural linkages” so that they take care of the “political cycles and any volatility that they form”.
On India taking positions, he said that earlier the thinking was to “stay out of trouble”, and “don’t get entangled” into other people’s issues.
“But today, people turn to us as part of a solution… We are not necessarily the bystander who may get sucked into other people’s issues. But we have a contribution to make the big issues of the day…You can’t say I’m going to stay away, and there will be competing choices,” he said.
