A Town hall event in the Indian city of Nashik on January 13 should go down in Indian diplomatic history as a milestone for the simple reason that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar articulated how New Delhi should go about strengthening its much-discussed “neighbourhood first” policy particularly in dealing with governments in a South Asian country which is not well disposed towards India so that the people of that country have good feelings towards India and understand the importance of having good relationship. In other words, what Jaishankar tells us is that ties between any two countries must survive change of guards there.

It was in the context of India’s current diplomatic row with the Maldives that he outlined what has been India’s approach towards its next door neighbours and how it should handle the complex issues, especially when a party not nurturing friendly towards India.

His remarks came to a pointed question about the ongoing rift between New Delhi and Male and how does India always ensure its interests irrespective of the change of governments globally and have relevance not just to the Indian Ocean island country but to entire South Asia where there have been instances have been galore of recalcitrant parties being in power holding divergent and even anti-India views which New Delhi is not entirely comfortable.

One has seen that happening in Bangladesh when BNP with a pronounced anti-India stand was in power from 1991 to 1996 and again from 2001 to 2006, in Nepal when the Maoists and at times Nepal Congress ruled and in the Maldives whenever Abduallh Yameen was President and now Mohd Muizzu won election on an “out India” campaign last year.

“That is what we are trying to do as part of what we call neighbourhood first policy, but that said politics is politics. So I cannot guarantee that in every country, every day, everybody will support us or agree with us but seriously as a solution what we are trying to do and I would say in last 10 years lot of success is to build I would say a very very strong connect so that even if politics may go up and down, the people of that country and a society generally have good feelings towards India and understand the importance of having good relationship.

How do you do this? What it means in practical ways is that we are involved today in building roads, electricity transmission (lines), supplying fuel, providing trade access, making investments and in having people holiday in other countries.

 All these are parts of how you develop those relationships. So we have to, you know, as I said, sometimes things do not go in a good way and then you have to in my business, you have to reason with people and try to bring things back to where they should be,” Jaishankar said. 

Jaishankar spoke about India’s efforts over the past decade since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came out with his “neighbourhood first” policy to build strong links with the neighbours, focusing on fostering positive sentiments among people.

He acknowledged that there are ups and downs in political relations between India and its South Asian neighbours and that India cannot always expect all the governments in the neighbourhood would be on the same page on all issues. “Politics is politics. I cannot guarantee that in every country, every day, everybody will support us or agree with us every time,” the Foreign Minister aptly said.

One can always debate if Jaishankar’s statesman-like formulation is possible to execute on the bedrock of ground realities of international politics, particularly between two countries when give-and-take is at the core and national interests take precedence over everything else.   

Strains developed between India and the Maldives soon after Muizzu, soon after his election victory, went public with his demand for withdrawal of Indian troops from his country who are largely deployed in securing that country’s maritime boundary and handling medical evacuation in remote atolls.

He hardened his stand soon after returning from a China visit by setting a deadline of March 15 for the withdrawal. The new President has also said the Maldives would not renew an agreement that allows India to conduct a survey of the Maldivian territorial waters.

What has further muddied the India-Maldives ties is three Maldivian junior ministers posting on the social media derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, criticising his recent trip to Lakshadweep. India strongly condemned the comments and summoned the Maldivian envoy to register a protest.

The incident also triggered an online campaign to boycott the popular tourist destination, with prominent figures from Bollywood and other celebrities endorsing the call to promote beach tourism in Lakshadweep and other domestic destinations. In response to the controversy, the Maldivian government distanced itself from the objectionable remarks against Modi and suspended the three junior ministers.

If the toughening of Muizzu’s posture on troops withdrawal issue has anything to do with his talks in Beijing and the coming parliamentary elections in the Maldives on March 17 is anybody’s guess. Muizzu’s party People’s National Congress does not have a majority in parliament where opposition Maldives Democratic Party holds sway since 2019. 

Muizzu, whose party lost to pro-India Maldivian Democratic Party, in the mayoral poll in Male a few days ago, will need the parliamentary majority for his foreign policy, including his approach towards big powers like India and China, according to watchers of Maldivian politics. What must be galling for Muizzu is it was he who had held the post of Mayor till he resigned from the position to contest the presidential elections last year.

Muizzu also recently announced a slew of measures to reduce the Maldives’ dependence on tourists from India to prop up the lifeline of the island nation’s economy and to encourage people from his country to look for medical treatment in the UAE, China and Thailand in a shift away from India which is much nearer and more cost-effective in this sector.

India is also a source of much cheaper and quality medicines for the Maldivian people. The Muizzu government plans to help a select category of people to avail medical facilities in the UAE, China and Thailand which also means a bigger fund outgo from the government of a country with a limited budget.

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The writer is a veteran Indian journalist