Entire Neighbourhood, Minus One, Good For Regional Cooperation: S Jaishankar’s Dig At Pakistan

Jaishankar reiterated that the move to revoke Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir was taken by the government to help ensure that people of Jammu and Kashmir get the same constitutional benefits as the rest of the country.

S Jaishankar was speaking at a session of World Economic Forum in New Delhi. (Videograb/ Twitter)

New Delhi: Citing a veiled reference to Pakistan, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday said that the entire South Asian neighbourhood, minus one, has been a fairly good story for regional cooperation. While speaking at a session of World Economic Forum in the national capital, Jaishankar referred to Pakistan as ‘Minus One’ while discussing the economic alliances between India and its neighbouring countries in South Asia. "I would say the entire neighbourhood, minus one, had actually been a fairly good story of regional cooperation," he said without naming Pakistan. Highlighting India's effort to create diplomatic and economic ties with its neighbouring countries the minister said that the government was doing a lot of things in the region such as building border roads, setting up power transmission, port connectivity, creating waterways, and building railways. Pakistan has been trying to attack India at various international forums over its decision to end special status to Jammu and Kashmir and splitting it into two union territories in August. Jaishankar reiterated that the move to revoke Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir was taken by the government to help ensure that people of Jammu and Kashmir get the same constitutional benefits as the rest of the country. The foreign minister also spoke on a wide range of issues, including Pakistan, Kashmir, trade war among others. Jaishankar, while outlining India's contributions across the world, today also said New Delhi is willing to engage more with countries related to different matters. "We are in a very unique position. Being a market economy, and a democratic and socially pluralistic country, we have comfort with the West. Being a part of rising Asia, we have comfort with a lot of rebalancing with Asian countries," he said. "While working with countries of Asia and Africa, we have a much stronger bonding with those countries. You saw recently at the UN, the willingness today to go out and engage with countries, visit more countries and therefore you can see a new energy in our foreign affairs," Jaishankar said. The foreign minister said he wanted to see the Indian foreign policy influential enough to decide global outcomes. "India is an exception as we are more nationalistic, but at the same time we don't see a tension between being nationalistic and being international, in the sense of engaging more with the world, so nationalism is not a negative sentiment," he stated. (With inputs from agencies)