New Delhi: According to reports, Indian External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar, said that India will not join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). He added that NATO template does not apply to India.
The Minister’s response comes after a recent recommendation from a powerful Congressional Committee in the United States to include India in the NATO Plus. While NATO is an intergovernmental military alliance of 31 countries in Europe and North America, NATO Plus brings together five more countries with NATO in a security arrangement. The five other countries are Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Israel, and South Korea.
The Congressional Committee, which recommended India’s inclusion, said that the US should strengthen NATO Plus arrangement to include India. The US willingness to make India part of the boarder NATO spectrum is to contain the growing threat of communist China.
According to the report, S Jaishankar said that India believes that it is capable of countering any Chinese threat by itself.
However, the External Affairs Minister said that he appreciated the the fact that the congressional panel has the sentiment to want to do more with India. And said that is a very good thing.
S Jaishankar’s statement refusing an entry to NATO Plus, comes ahead of the scheduled visit of Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi to the United States from June 21 to 24. He will also address the Joint Session of the Congress on June 22.
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