New Delhi: Describing "reciprocity as the cardinal principle" of diplomatic relations, Union Minister Shashi Tharoor today said after ill-treatment meted out to Indian Diplomat the government reacted with outrage as the spirit of its approach was not reciprocated.
Asked whether India's move was a retaliation, Tharoor said that it would be unfair to call it so as his government had not "stripped searched" any American diplomat.
"Reciprocity is the cardinal principle of diplomatic relations. When we found that the spirit of our approach was not being reciprocated in the way in which one of our diplomat was treated, naturally we reacted with outrage because we do not expect this from a friendly nation and this was not a friendly act," Tharoor told reporters when asked questions over the Khobragade issue.
He added that the fundamental relation with US was not in question as Indo-US relationship was valuable for India as well as them.
"We value it and we expect that US will also value it but we can't value it more than the US values their friendship with us," Tharoor said.
"We have extended certain courtesy and we no longer find it appropriate to extend. If they want to impose a very strict interpretation of US law, we will impose a strict interpretation of Indian law on US personnel...these things happen reciprocally," he said.
