In a veiled dig at Maldives, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said that “big bullies don’t provide $4.5 billion aid” when neighbouring countries are in distress.

Jaishankar’s comments came as he was asked whether India was being a “bully” in the sub-continent and the Indian Ocean region, during a book launch event in the national capital.

“The big change today in this part of the world is what has happened between India and its neighbours. When you say India is perceived as a big bully, you know, big bullies don’t provide four and a half billion dollars when the neighbours are in trouble. Big bullies don’t supply vaccines to other countries when Covid-19 is on, or make exceptions to their own rules to respond to food demands or fuel demands or fertilizer demands because some war in some other part of the world has complicated their lives,” he said.

The EAM’s remarks came after Maldives President Mohamad Muizzu, in an indirect reference to India, said in January that no country had the licence to “bully us”, even though it was a tiny nation.

“Today at the connectivity, just the volume of people moving up and down, the volume of the trade which is there, the investments which are there, it’s actually a very, very good story to tell. Not just with Nepal and Bangladesh, with Sri Lanka as well, I would say even with Maldives…And Bhutan…I mean I don’t want to miss them out because they have just been consistently strong partners,” Jaishankar said.

“You also have to look today at actually what is changed between India and its neighbours. Certainly, with Bangladesh and Nepal. I mean, today you have a power grid, you have roads which didn’t exist a decade ago, you have railways which didn’t exist a decade ago, and there’s usage of waterways. Indian businesses use ports of Bangladesh on a national treatment basis,” he added.