Taking repeated indirect and direct swipes at Pakistan, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Friday said India is recalibrating its neighbourhood policy by balancing humanitarian assistance, development cooperation and firm responses to security threats, stressing that sustained terrorism makes normal neighbourly relations impossible.
Speaking at the inauguration of Shaastra 2026, the techno-entertainment festival at IIT Madras, Jaishankar said India has “naturally invested” in neighbours that maintain cooperative and constructive relations.
He noted that several countries in the region received their first COVID-19 vaccine consignments from India and that New Delhi also provided food assistance during the Ukraine conflict when global supply chains were under strain.
Referring to Sri Lanka, Jaishankar said India extended USD 4 billion in financial assistance during the island nation’s economic crisis and responded immediately with rescue and relief operations during a recent cyclone. “That is what good neighbours do,” he said.
However, the External Affairs Minister underlined that not all neighbours behave responsibly. “You can also have bad neighbours. Unfortunately, we do. When you have bad neighbours, if you look to the one to the west, if a country decides that it will deliberately, persistently, and unrepentantly continue with terrorism, we have a right to defend our people against terrorism. We will exercise that right,” Jaishankar said, in remarks clearly aimed at Pakistan.
“How we exercise that right is up to us. Nobody can tell us what we should or should not do. We will do whatever we have to do to defend ourselves,” he added.
Jaishankar said long-standing cross-border terrorism has made it impossible to sustain normal cooperation with such neighbours. “We have the right to defend our people. If you face terrorism for decades, you cannot have a good neighbourhood relationship. You cannot share water or cooperation with someone who continues terrorism,” he said.
The minister also referred to the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) of 1960 with Pakistan, which was suspended following the deadly Pahalgam attack.
“Many years ago, we agreed to a water-sharing arrangement, but if you had decades of terrorism, there is no good neighbourliness. If there is no good neighbourliness, you don't get the benefits of that good neighbourliness. You can't say, ‘Please share water with me, but I will continue terrorism with you.’ That's not reconcilable,” he said.
Jaishankar said India is surrounded by “a lot of neighbours of various kinds” and that New Delhi’s approach depends on how those neighbours behave. “If you have a neighbour who is good to you or at least who is not harmful to you, your natural instinct is to be kind, to help that neighbour, and that's what we do as a country,” he said.
On Bangladesh, the External Affairs Minister said India wishes the country well in its elections and hopes that “once things settle down, good neighbourliness will continue.”
Speaking about Afghanistan, Jaishankar reiterated India’s long-standing civilisational ties with the country and acknowledged the challenges faced by its people. He said he had a constructive discussion with his Afghan counterpart and expressed optimism that “things will improve over time.”
Addressing reports that an Indian woman from Arunachal Pradesh was harassed by Chinese immigration officials at Shanghai airport in November, Jaishankar said India had formally protested the incident. “A lady from Arunachal Pradesh was detained and harassed. We protested. Arunachal Pradesh is, and will always remain, a part of India. We expect other countries to respect laws and norms,” he asserted.
Jaishankar also recalled remarks made last month, when he said that “much of India's problems” emanate from the Pakistani army. Drawing an analogy, he had said that just as there are “good terrorists and bad terrorists,” there are “good military leaders and apparently not-so-good ones,” comments seen as a reference to Pakistan Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir.
On a lighter note, Jaishankar spoke about his personal routine, saying his life remains “balanced” despite not having conventional off days. “In my life, I don't have off days… the world still runs on Saturday-Sunday,” he said, adding that reading, music, sports and maintaining a routine help him stay grounded.
“If you build a physical routine into your cycle, give yourself some time to read, write, think, talk, watch I can tell you your daily routine itself is so balanced that you don't need to unplug, but my wife is sitting here and she may contradict me,” he added.
