BANGKOK — At the height of Sri Lanka's debt crisis two years ago, India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar gave a talk at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University on India's "Look East" policy. I asked him during the question-and-answer session whether India and China could cooperate to get the new Brics bank to bail out Sri Lanka.
He smiled and told me that if India and China can cooperate, they can bail out more countries, not only Sri Lanka. Then he went on to explain that the border problems in the Himalayas and China's activities in disputed Kashmir as a barrier. But, to keep the Indian Ocean peaceful, it is essential that India and China cooperate to assist Sri Lanka and not allow outside powers to destabilize the Asian region.
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