Monday, May 06, 2024

India not xenophobic, FM says after Biden remark


India on Saturday decried remarks by US President Joe Biden earlier this week describing it as an “xenophobic” country that does not welcome immigrants.


The New Arab Staff & Agencies
04 May, 2024

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar addresses a press conference at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi on April 01, 2024 [Getty]


India is not xenophobic, the country's foreign minister has insisted, after comments by US President Joe Biden suggesting the South Asian nation and fellow ally Japan were struggling economically because they rejected immigrants.

Biden, who is seeking reelection against Republican rival Donald Trump in November, made the remarks at a campaign fundraising event in Washington this week.

Foreign minister S. Jaishankar told a media roundtable Friday that Biden's comments did not match India's reality.

"First of all, our economy is not faltering," he said, according to a report of the discussion published Saturday by the Economic Times newspaper.

"India has been a very unique country," he added. "I would say actually, in the history of the world, that it's been a society which has been very open... different people of different societies come to India."


India is one of the world's fastest-growing economies with annualised GDP growth of 8.4 percent in the December quarter, according to official data in February.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu-nationalist government has been accused by critics of discriminating against Muslims, including through recently enacted reforms to India's citizenship law.

The amended law sparked huge protests when it was first passed by parliament in 2019 and finally enacted in March, with Amnesty International warning that it still risked being used as a tool, alongside a mooted National Register of Citizens, to deprive some Muslims of citizenship.

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"There are people who publicly said on record that... a million Muslims will lose their citizenship in this country," Jaishankar said.

"Why are they not being held to account? Because nobody has lost citizenship."

'Unfortunate'


Biden had clubbed allies India and Japan in with rivals China and Russia in remarks intended as a defence of US immigration policy.

"Why is China stalling so badly economically? Why is Japan in trouble? Why is Russia in trouble? And India? Because they're xenophobic. They don't want immigrants," Biden had said at the Wednesday fundraiser.

Tokyo responded Saturday by saying it was "unfortunate that comments not based on an accurate understanding of Japan's policy were made".

Since taking office in 2021, Biden has strengthened ties with US allies in Asia, in particular India and Japan.


He has hosted state dinners at the White House for both Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

The White House has since had to downplay Biden's remarks.

The president was merely trying to send a broader message that "the United States is a nation of immigrants," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

Biden clarifies xenophobia comments

United States President Joe Biden arrives prior to making a statement on Campus unrest from in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC on Thursday, May 2, 2024.

United States President Joe Biden arrives prior to making a statement on Campus unrest from in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC on Thursday, May 2, 2024. 

 IMAGO/MediaPunch via Reuters Connect

On Friday and Saturday, India and Japan responded to President Joe Biden’s gaffe at a campaign fundraiser last week in which he called the two nations “xenophobic.”

The US governmentlater clarified that Biden’s comments meant to explain "that the US is a nation of immigrants and that immigrants make the US stronger” and did not have "the intent of undermining" the US-Japan relationship.

Still,Tokyo was not amused. Japan’s embassy in Washington said “the comments were not based on an accurate understanding of Japan's policies.”

New Delhi wasn’t impressed either. India’s Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said India was open to people “who have a claim to come to India” and highlighted its strong economy.

Having described the US-Japan alliance as "unbreakable" and noted India’s “democratic character” and “diversity” during a state visit last year, Biden’s latest comments contradict previous efforts to sweet-talk these key Indo-Pacific allies. But considering their common geopolitical interests, especially when it comes to China, Tokyo and New Delhi are unlikely to let the gaffe sour their relationship with Washington.


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