Eyeing China, India befriends 'Myanmar Navy': Cautions Beijing from commenting on 'internal matters'

New Delhi: The Modi government is now taking its 'China policy' to a new stage wherein it sought to warn Beijing from meddling in India’s "internal matters” and also enlisted closer friendship with Myanmar by offering it the first submarine INS Sindhuvir.

"China has no locus standi to comment on India's internal matters. We hope that countries will not comment on India’s internal matters, as much as they expect the same of others," MEA spokesman Anurag Srivastava told reporters here on Thursday during weekly briefing days after 'Taiwan National Day' and after the Chinese foreign ministry linked infrastructure development on the Indian side to the stand-off in East Ladakh.

During the Taiwan National Day, common Indians gave a taste of their feeling to Beijing in social media while the government preferred not to issue any statement.

Answering questions, the MEA spokesman said, "Cooperation in the maritime domain is a part of our diverse and enhanced engagement with Myanmar. In this context, India will be delivering a kilo class submarine INS Sindhuvir to the Myanmar Navy.  We understand that this will be the first submarine of the Myanmar Navy."

This is in accordance with India's vision of SAGAR – Security and Growth for All in the Region, and also inline with New Delhi's commitment to build capacities and "self reliance" in all the neighbouring countries, he said.

Answering questions, he said: "The union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh have been, are, and would remain an integral part of India. China has no locus standi to comment on India's internal matters". 

Srivastava also clarified yet again India's position on Arunachal Pradesh and asserted that the northeastern state is an "inalienable" part of India. 

"This fact has also been clearly conveyed to the Chinese side on several occasions, including at the highest level".

To questions on claim by Pakistan's Moeed Yusuf that India has sent a message to resume dialogues, the MEA spokesman outright denied any such move.

"As regards the purported message, let me make it clear that no such message was sent from our side," he said. The spokesman said Pakistan always tries to "divert attention from domestic failures of the present government and mislead its domestic constituents by pulling India into headlines on a daily basis". 

"The Official (Pak NSA) is well advised to restrict his advice to his establishment and not to comment on India’s domestic policy. The statements made by him are contrary to facts on the ground, misleading and fictitious".

The Modi government has put off all bilateral talks except on specific issues like Kartarpur Corridor with Pakistan following the Pathankot air force terror attack in January 2016. 

On Thursday also, the MEA spokesman said: "The Pakistani leadership continues to indulge in inappropriate, provocative and hate speech against India. Such support to terrorism against India and use of derogatory and abusive language is not conducive to normal neighbourly relations".

Pakistani NSA had told an Indian website: "Kashmiris can’t bear the thought of being Indian. Kashmiri Hindustan se nafrat kartein hain, and, when that’s the reality, what internal arrangement are you talking about?"

On disengagement along the Chinese border, Mr Srivastava said: "Disengagement is a complex process that requires redeployment of troops by each side towards their regular posts on their respective  sides of the LAC. To achieve this, the two sides will maintain the current momentum of communications based on the guidance of our leadership to not to turn differences into disputes".

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Jaishankar waxes eloquence on Kashmir; says - "Every country has right to alter administrative set up" 

"The external boundaries of India have not changed. The external boundaries of India remain what they are today as opposed to what they were five years ago or 20 years ago, 40 years ago. So as far as our neighbours are concerned, our point to them is that this is something which is internal to us". 

He further says: "Every country after all reserves the right to change its administrative jurisdictions. A country like China has also changed the borders of its provinces and I’m sure a lot of other countries do that. Neighbours get impacted only if your external boundaries change. That has not happened in this case". 

The Minister said speaking during an online event hosted by the Asia Society.

On Pakistan, he said: Normal neighbours do visas and trade, they give you connectivity and most important they don’t practice terrorism. "And I think until we address that problem, this challenge of how do you have a normal relationship with this very unique neighbour is a very troubling issue for our foreign policy."

“Terrorism from Pakistan remains publicly acknowledged by their government as a policy that they are justifying. So it makes it very hard to conduct normal relations with them, Jaishankar said. 

He added that it is not only terrorism, but Pakistan doesn’t do normal trade with India and has not given New Delhi MFN (Most Favoured Nation) status.

"We don’t have a normal visa relationship, they are very restrictive on that score. They have blocked connectivity between India and Afghanistan and from Afghanistan to India," he said.

Wagah Border