‘India will do whatever it takes to defend itself against bad neighbours’: EAM S Jaishankar

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Friday asserted that India will do whatever is necessary to defend itself against “bad neighbours”, underlining that the country will take decisions on its security based on its own judgement and interests. Speaking at IIT Madras, Jaishankar said, “nobody can tell us what we should do or not we will do whatever we have to do to defend ourselves it's a common sense proposition.”

Referring to water-sharing arrangements with neighbouring countries, the External Affairs Minister said such agreements were rooted in goodwill and the belief in fostering peaceful relations. “many years ago we agreed to a water arrangement water sharing arrangement because the belief the underpinning of that was it was a gesture of goodwill because for good neighborliness we were doing it,” he said.