[ad_1]
BENAULIM: Addressing the media on a day five Army jawans lost their lives during an anti-terror operation in Rajouri — the second terror-related incident in J&K in the past two weeks and since the official announcement about the G20 meeting that India will host in Srinagar later this month , external affairs minister S Jaishankar on Friday said Pakistan had nothing to do with not just G20, but also Srinagar.
“The only issue to be discussed in J&K is Pakistan’s illegal occupation of PoK and when they will vacate it,” the minister said, adding it was natural for India to host a G20 meeting there.
“Victims of terrorism don’t sit with perpetrators of terrorism. Victims call it out and delegitimise it. To come here and preach hypocritically as if we are on the same boat… I don’t want to jump the gun (on Rajouri attack) but we are all feeling outraged,” he said, responding to a query about Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s peace overtures in which he had told the Pakistani media that ties should not be allowed to remain hostage to history.
“Don’t know if peace is our destiny but terrorism certainly can’t be any country’s destiny. You can’t do terrorism and speak about peace in the same breath,” Jaishankar said, responding to Bilawal’s remark that “peace is our destiny”.
Bilawal had left for Pakistan before Jaishankar’s press interaction.
Earlier in the day, after a mostly uneventful SCO welcome dinner, India and Pakistan returned Friday to spar at the business end of the foreign ministers’ meeting on the issue of cross-border terrorism. Jaishankar reminded the member-states that combating terrorism was one of the original mandates of the SCO and also tweeted later, responding to his counterpart Bilawal’s assertion that state actors must not be conflated with non-state actors, that they should not allow anybody – individual or state – to hide behind non-state actors.
Addressing the meeting, Bilawal said terrorism should not be weaponised for “diplomatic point scoring”. Jaishankar countered it at his press briefing later by saying Bilawal had unconsciously revealed a mindset. “They seem to think terrorism is legitimate and normal and can be weaponised. Am I supposed to put up with it? We are only exposing Pakistan politically and diplomatically,” he said.
Both leaders spoke in the meeting without naming each other’s country as the practice at the SCO is to not raise bilateral disputes. Bilawal didn’t specifically mention the J&K issue in the meeting but said “illegal and unilateral” measures in violation of UNSC resolutions ran counter to SCO objectives. On Bilawal’s comment before the media that India had to review the decision to abrogate Article 370, Jaishankar said, “Wake up and smell the coffee… 370 is history.
With his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang also present, Jaishankar reiterated India’s position that while connectivity was key to progress, it had to be accompanied by respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of all member-states.
“The only issue to be discussed in J&K is Pakistan’s illegal occupation of PoK and when they will vacate it,” the minister said, adding it was natural for India to host a G20 meeting there.
“Victims of terrorism don’t sit with perpetrators of terrorism. Victims call it out and delegitimise it. To come here and preach hypocritically as if we are on the same boat… I don’t want to jump the gun (on Rajouri attack) but we are all feeling outraged,” he said, responding to a query about Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s peace overtures in which he had told the Pakistani media that ties should not be allowed to remain hostage to history.
“Don’t know if peace is our destiny but terrorism certainly can’t be any country’s destiny. You can’t do terrorism and speak about peace in the same breath,” Jaishankar said, responding to Bilawal’s remark that “peace is our destiny”.
Bilawal had left for Pakistan before Jaishankar’s press interaction.
Earlier in the day, after a mostly uneventful SCO welcome dinner, India and Pakistan returned Friday to spar at the business end of the foreign ministers’ meeting on the issue of cross-border terrorism. Jaishankar reminded the member-states that combating terrorism was one of the original mandates of the SCO and also tweeted later, responding to his counterpart Bilawal’s assertion that state actors must not be conflated with non-state actors, that they should not allow anybody – individual or state – to hide behind non-state actors.
Addressing the meeting, Bilawal said terrorism should not be weaponised for “diplomatic point scoring”. Jaishankar countered it at his press briefing later by saying Bilawal had unconsciously revealed a mindset. “They seem to think terrorism is legitimate and normal and can be weaponised. Am I supposed to put up with it? We are only exposing Pakistan politically and diplomatically,” he said.
Both leaders spoke in the meeting without naming each other’s country as the practice at the SCO is to not raise bilateral disputes. Bilawal didn’t specifically mention the J&K issue in the meeting but said “illegal and unilateral” measures in violation of UNSC resolutions ran counter to SCO objectives. On Bilawal’s comment before the media that India had to review the decision to abrogate Article 370, Jaishankar said, “Wake up and smell the coffee… 370 is history.
With his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang also present, Jaishankar reiterated India’s position that while connectivity was key to progress, it had to be accompanied by respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of all member-states.
#Bilawal #Wake #smell #coffee #history #EAM #Bilawal #Bhutto #India #News
