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On border dispute, Jaishankar says India was resolute, strong about protecting its interests
YB WEB DESK. Dated: 2/27/2021 11:30:22 AM
New Delhi, Feb 26 India was strong and resolute when it came to handling the border issue and dealt with it in an effective manner, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Friday in an apparent reference to the standoff between India and China. Similarly, India also dealt effectively with the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic impact by fashioning its own response after listening to everyone, the EAM said at an event. "Last year, we had three big developments which all impacted us nationally. They impacted the world as well -- one was Covid- 19, the second was its economic impact and the third was the challenges that we found on our border which obviously had implications," the External Affairs Minister said. "In each of these cases, I would assert to you that they were difficult challenges. There were a lot of debates as indeed there should be, there were tough decisions, lot of second guessing and a lot of free advice given around. I would say, as a government we listened to everything and then we did what we thought was the right thing to do," he asserted in his remarks during the session titled 'Resilient Global Growth in a Post- Pandemic World. Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne also participated in the session. Elaborating on India's responses to the three key developments last year, Jaishankar said that in the case of the Covid-19 outbreak, the government went for an early lockdown, induced a degree of social discipline and set up truly impressive health infrastructure in a very short space of time. "I mean to create 16,000 dedicated centres and to go from zero to becoming an exporter of PPE masks, ventilators and testing kits, I think, frankly, was a very big deal," he said. On dealing with the economic impact of the Covid-19, he said that also involved a lot of debates but the government consciously decided that there was a timing element to what should be the response and did not get pressured into "front loaded stimulus measures".