Our main concern is our neighbour, says Rajnath Singh

Rajnath said the decisions taken by the government on Article 370 had ended the discrimination faced by people in the past 70 years.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. Photo: LSTV/PTI

“No one should have a neighbour like we have,” Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Thursday in reference to Pakistan.

“Our main concern is our neighbour. The problem is you can change your friends but it is not in your hands to change your neighbour,” Mr. Singh said at the annual general body meeting of the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA).

He said the decisions taken by the government on Article 370 had ended the discrimination faced by people in the past 70 years. “The neighbouring country is not happy and it will try to disturb peace,” he said.

Highlighting the government’s ‘neighbourhood first’ policy, Mr. Singh said the country treated nations sharing not only land borders but also maritime boundary with it as neighbours and it was reflected by Mr. Modi’s first visit abroad in his second term to the Maldives and his own (Mr. Singh’s) visit as Defence Minister to Mozambique.