'Sometimes, things do not go in good way': S Jaishankar on Maldives row

Amid an escalating row with Maldives, India's external affairs minister S Jaishankar said "Politics is politics...it can't be guaranteed that every country will support or agree with India all the time."

Jaishankar was speaking at a Townhall in Nagpur. "What we are trying to do, and with a lot of success in the last 10 years, is to build a very strong connect," Jaishankar said. 

Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu has asked India to withdraw its military personnel from his country by March 15. “Indian military personnel cannot stay in the Maldives. This is the policy of President Dr Mohamed Muizzu and that of this administration,” Abdulla Nazim Ibrahim, the public policy secretary at the President’s Office, said on Sunday.

Maldives and India have set up a high-level core group to negotiate the withdrawal of troops. 

Also read: Maldives asks India to withdraw its military presence by March 15

"We are involved today in building roads, electricity, transmission, supplying fuel, providing trade access, making investments, and having people holiday in other countries," Jaishankar said, adding that "all these are parts of how you develop those relationships."

"Sometimes, things do not go in a good way, and then you have to reason with people to bring things back to where they should be," he told the Nagpur audience.

Jaishankar highlighted India's efforts over the past decade to build strong connections with neighbours. "Politics may go up and down but the people of that nation generally have good feelings towards India and understand the importance of having good relations," he said.