'Cant Ask For Water And Continue Terrorism': Jaishankar's Lesson On 'Good Neighbourliness' To Pakistan

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister (EAM) Dr S Jaishankar ripped into Pakistan's 'deliberate' and 'persistent' policy of indulging in terrorist activities against India saying that the latter has the right to defend its people and it is completely up to them how to exercise this right.

"You can also have bad neighbours. Unfortunately, we do. When you have bad neighbours, if you look to the one to the west. If a country decides that it will deliberately, persistently, and unrepentantly continue with terrorism, we have a right to defend our people against terrorism. We will exercise that right. How we exercise that right is up to us. Nobody can tell us what we should or should not do. We will do whatever we have to do to defend ourselves," Jaishankar said while speaking at the launch of IIT Madras Global and the inaugural session of the IIT Madras tech fest Shaastra on Friday.

Jaishankar was referring to India's recent decision to put the Indus Water Treaty in abeyance after Pakistan-backed terrorists killed 26 tourists near Pahalgam in India's Jammu and Kashmir on April 22, 2025.

The EAM defended India's stance at the event saying that while the two countries had agreed to the World Bank brokered water sharing agreement way back in 1960, promoting covert terrorist operations against one's neighbour is not a good sign of "neighbourliness."

"Many years ago, we agreed to a water sharing arrangement, but if you had decades of terrorism, there is no good neighbourliness. If there is no good neighbourliness, you don't get the benefits of that good neighbourliness. You can't say - Please share water with me, but I will continue terrorism with you. That's not reconcilable," Jaishankar said.

Jaishankar also referred to India's relationship with Bangladesh which has turned somewhat sour ever since Sheikh Hasina's ouster and attacks on religious minorities in the election-bound nation.

“I was there in Bangladesh just two days ago. I had gone to represent India at the funeral of the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Begum Khalida Zia. We are blessed with a lot of neighbours of various kinds,” he said, adding, “If you have a neighbour who is good to you or at least who is not harmful to you, your natural instinct is to be kind, to help that neighbour, and that's what we do as a country. When you look around our neighbourhood, wherever there is a sense of good neighbourliness, India invests, India helps, India shares.” 

India's ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy came under a lot of scrutiny when the anti-India rhetoric was in full swing during the unrest in Bangladesh and most recently in Nepal. Experts have cautioned India to fine-tune our neighbourhood policy, so that these countries do not feel overshadowed by India's alleged ‘big-brother’ attitude towards its neighbours. 

Countering this argument and citing an example, Jaishankar said, “We were talking about COVID. Most of our neighbours got the first shipment of vaccines from India... Some neighbours went through very exceptional stresses, a very notable one was Sri Lanka, and we actually stepped up with a package of $4 billion at a time when their negotiations with the IMF were still moving at a very glacial pace.”

Emphasisiong that India's growth story is not destabilising in the region, Jaishankar said that India's neighbouring countries stand a chance to benefit from the ‘lifting tide’ of economic growth in the region.

“Most of our neighbours have a realisation that India's growth is today a lifting tide. If India grows, all our neighbours will grow with us. I think that's the message which I also took to Bangladesh. They are right now heading for their elections. We wish them well in that election, and we hope that once things settle down, the sense of neighbourliness in this region will grow," he said.

ALSO READ: EAM Jaishankar Hands Over PM Modi's Letter to BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman in Dhaka, Highlights "Vision and Values" Guiding Partnership