Bangladesh must decide what kind of ties it wants with India: Jaishankar

Bangladesh needs to make up its mind about what kind of relationship it wants with New Delhi, Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said today (23 February), stressing that the two neighbours share a very special history that goes back to 1971.

"If every day someone in the interim government stands up and blames India for everything, some of those things if you look at the reports are absolutely ridiculous. You cannot, on one hand, say I would now like to have good relations with you, but I get up every morning and blame you for everything that goes wrong. It is also a decision that they have to make," Jaishankar said while speaking at the Delhi University Literature Festival.

He said India has sent a very clear signal to Dhaka that it would like to see things "calm down" and the resumption of normal bilateral ties, but it is unhappy with the constantly hostile messaging emanating from across the border.

Jaishankar shared two aspects of what is "very troubling" for them.

"The spate of attacks on minorities in Bangladesh, obviously it is something which impacts our thinking and it is something we have to speak up about, which we have done," he said, sharing the first aspect of the situation.

The second aspect is they (Bangladesh) have their politics, but at the end of the day, the two countries are neighbours, Jaishankar said, adding that "they have to make up their minds on what kind of relationship they want to have with us."

"We have a long history with Bangladesh. We have a very special history with Bangladesh. It goes back to 1971," Jaishankar said.

He said Dhaka cannot claim to want normal ties with India while continuously blaming New Delhi for its domestic issues.

Jaishankar said they obviously do not want to see messaging and signaling which is continuously hostile in a way to India.