Current situation does not warrant the country’s intervention: Shivshankar Menon

Defending India's stand on Maldives crisis, former National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon on Saturday said that the current situation did not warrant the country’s intervention.

Delivering a guest lecture at Pragyan, the annual techno-managerial festival of National Institute of Technology, Tiruchi, Mr. Menon, who had also served as the Foreign Secretary, said there was a view that India should have interfered in solving the crisis in the Maldives. The current situation was not the same when India sent its troops to Maldives to neutralise the People Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) to prevent an attempt to stage a coup against then President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom in 1988. Sensing danger, Gayoom had sought the intervention of countries such as India and the United States of America. “But, the current crisis is totally different. India can not take any decision in haste,” Mr. Menon said. Though former President Mohammed Nasheed had asked for India's intervention, Mr. Menon said the country had to study various aspects of the crisis.

On China's rise, the former Foreign Secretary said that it had opened up new opportunities to create more friends. Some Asian countries, which were delaying bilateral trade agreements for long, had come to an understanding with India due to the rise of China. There was a balancing effect in international relations. Some might be good or bad for the country's interest. “We have to find which were good and make use of new opportunities in the changing environment,” he added.