India not contemplating any import curbs for Malaysia, Turkey: Goyal

The government is not contemplating any curbs on imports from Malaysia and Turkey, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday. He said that India believes in fair play and equal treatment to all the countries.

"I don't think we have put any curbs on imports from Malaysia, and neither we are contemplating nor we have put any curbs on Turkey," he said here at the Raisina Dialogue. The minister said that any import curbs being imposed by India is only to protect interest of the country and it is uniform in nature.

"If some of the restrictions impact Malaysia, I don't think that is the only country that is being impacted. There are other exporters to India who would have the same impact," he added. The government on January 8 imposed restrictions on imports of refined palm oil, which is expected to impact Malaysia.

Indonesia and Malaysia are the two countries which supply palm oil. The move comes in the backdrop of remarks by Malaysia on the new citizenship law and Kashmir issue.

On December 20 last year, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad had reportedly said, "I am sorry to see that India, which claims to be a secular state, is now taking action to deprive some Muslims of their citizenship". "If we do that here, you know what will happen. There will be chaos, there will be instability and everyone will suffer," he had said.

Turkey too criticised India over the situation in Kashmir.