‘Europe must stop thinking its issues are the world’s’

NEW DELHI: External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Friday dismissed attempts to conflate New Delhi’s position on the Ukraine crisis with global support for India’s efforts to handle its differences with China, and said the country has the prerogative of choosing a position that best suits its own interests.

Participating in the annual Bratislava Forum organised by the think tank GLOBSEC in the Slovakian capital, Jaishankar rejected the impression that India is sitting on the fence or would join an axis led by the US or China. India, he added, is perfectly capable of handling its difficult ties with China.

“We have a difficult relationship with China. We’re perfectly capable of managing it. If I get global understanding and support, obviously it is of help to me but this idea that I do a transaction – that I come in, in one conflict because it will help me in conflict [number] two – that’s not how the world works,” he said.

Jaishankar sought to dispel linkages being made between the war in Ukraine and the current tensions between India and China, describing the argument as selfserving. “China and India happened way before anything happened in Ukraine. The Chinese don’t need a precedent somewhere else in the world on how to engage us, or not engage us, or be difficult with us, or not be difficult with us.”

He added that India would not accept constructs such as choosing between axes led by the US or China. “I don’t think it’s necessary for me to join this axis or not, and if I’m not joining this, I must be with the other one. I don’t accept that,” he said.