NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday slammed the government over the reported displeasure expressed by the ASEAN co-chair for the review of India FTA following Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal's 'B-Team of China' remark, and said it was "another blow" to Indian diplomacy.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh shared on X a media report which claimed that the ASEAN co-chair for the review of India FTA has expressed displeasure over Goyal's recent remarks, describing several countries in the region as a "B team of China".
In his post on X, Ramesh said, "India has very close civilizational, cultural, economic, and political ties with the 10-nation ASEAN Group--Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. ASEAN, that came into being almost six decades back, has a combined GDP just slightly lower than that of India."
The Union Commerce and Industry Minister dismisses them as the "B team of China", he said.
"ASEAN now ticks him off. Indian diplomacy suffers yet another blow. This was needless," Ramesh said.
Last week, speaking at the India Global Forum (IGF) session on UK-India Science, Technology and Innovation Collaboration at the Science Museum in London, Goyal had said, "There was a point of time 15 years ago when we were more focused on doing FTAs with countries who were our competitors. So if I am doing an ASEAN agreement, it really is silly because (that is) opening up my market to my competitors, many of whom have now become the B team of China."
The Congress had slammed Goyal for his remarks against the India-ASEAN trade agreements, saying labelling these countries as "B team of China" is "irresponsible and insulting".
In a statement, Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma had said Goyal's statement "belittling India ASEAN Trade Agreements is unwarranted, ill advised and unfortunate".