It is the duty of host country to protect high commissions, vandalism is unacceptable: Jaishankhar
Mar 24, 2023
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], March 24 : External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday said that it is the duty of the host country to provide security to high commissions and as a foreign minister he cannot accept the vandalisation at the Indian high commission in London by pro-Khalistani elements.
"As a foreign minister we are not going to accept this," Jaishankar said in his address at the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) Yuva Samvad programme in Bengaluru on Thursday.
When asked about his response to the vandalism at Indian High Commission in London, Jaishankar said, "Whenever any country sends an embassy abroad, it is the obligation of the receiving country to provide security to the diplomats. It is the obligation of the receiving country to ensure that the embassy or the High Commission's premises are respected."
Jaishankar said, "We have had conversations with the British government."
But as a foreign minister we are not going to accept these acts, he said.
The External Affairs Minister also said that he wanted to share the reasons why today the world is looking at India with a different sense of respect, with a greater sense of partnership and with a desire for closer engagement.
He said, "When Covid first came there was a genuine worry in the world how countries which do not have a strong public health system, a very robust infrastructure, no social safety net, how will such societies cope with Covid. At many high-level conversations, even at a G20 level, often India would be mentioned as a source of worry for the world."
"But when we see who came through it and in what manner I think the world sat up and really took notice of India. In all of this I think the world saw two very big differences in India over the last few years," Jaishankar said.
Jaishankar further said, "One was the fact that we produced vaccines on a scale, with efficiency and with timeliness that the rest of the world really came to admire. Second, we a nation which was always last in the queue waiting for other people to do their stuff and then eventually it would come to us, we actually had not just Made in India vaccines, we had Invented in India vaccines."
BJYM national president and BJP MP Tejasvi Surya was also present on the occasion and moderated the dialogue.
