India
‘Happening at industry level’: Jaishankar on Pakistan sponsoring cross-border terrorism | India News
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NEW DELHI: Mincing no words, external affairs minister S Jaishankar on Saturday spoke about ties with Pakistan and said that every nation wants a stable neighbourhood, “but how do you deal with a neighbour who does not hide the fact that they use terrorism as an instrument of statecraft?”.
Speaking at Singapore’s NUS Institute of South Asian Studies, the minister said that cross-border terrorism from Pakistan is not a “one-off happening”.
“There is a very sustained almost industry-level assembly line of people whose job it is to do bad things at night … there is a concerted effort to produce this violence with the intent of pressurising your neighbour,” Jaishankar said, adding that the mood in India now is no longer to “overlook terrorism”.
“We have to find a way of addressing this cross-border terrorism … dodging the matter gets us nowhere, in fact it only invites more trouble,” said the minister.
While admitting that there is no “instantaneous fix”, Jaishankar said that India will “no longer skirt the issue anymore”.
“We should not give the other country a free pass saying that there is nothing that they can do about it or that there is too much else at stake so let us overlook it … In India, the mood is not to overlook terrorism,” the minister said.
China’s claims on Arunachal ludicrous: Jaishankar
On ties with China and its recent remarks on Arunachal Pradesh, Jaishankar said that Beijing ‘s repeated claims on Arunachal Pradesh were “ludicrous” and asserted that the frontier state was a “natural part of India”.
In probably his first public comments on China’s frequent claims on Arunachal Pradesh and its opposition to Indian leaders visiting the state, Jaishankar said it was not a new issue. “This is not a new issue. I mean China has laid claim, it has expanded its claim. The claims are ludicrous to begin with and remain ludicrous today,” he said.
Speaking at Singapore’s NUS Institute of South Asian Studies, the minister said that cross-border terrorism from Pakistan is not a “one-off happening”.
“There is a very sustained almost industry-level assembly line of people whose job it is to do bad things at night … there is a concerted effort to produce this violence with the intent of pressurising your neighbour,” Jaishankar said, adding that the mood in India now is no longer to “overlook terrorism”.
“We have to find a way of addressing this cross-border terrorism … dodging the matter gets us nowhere, in fact it only invites more trouble,” said the minister.
While admitting that there is no “instantaneous fix”, Jaishankar said that India will “no longer skirt the issue anymore”.
“We should not give the other country a free pass saying that there is nothing that they can do about it or that there is too much else at stake so let us overlook it … In India, the mood is not to overlook terrorism,” the minister said.
China’s claims on Arunachal ludicrous: Jaishankar
On ties with China and its recent remarks on Arunachal Pradesh, Jaishankar said that Beijing ‘s repeated claims on Arunachal Pradesh were “ludicrous” and asserted that the frontier state was a “natural part of India”.
In probably his first public comments on China’s frequent claims on Arunachal Pradesh and its opposition to Indian leaders visiting the state, Jaishankar said it was not a new issue. “This is not a new issue. I mean China has laid claim, it has expanded its claim. The claims are ludicrous to begin with and remain ludicrous today,” he said.
Jaishankar’s comments come days after the Ministry of External Affairs dismissed the Chinese defence ministry’s assertions.
“Repeating baseless arguments in this regard does not lend such claims any validity. Arunachal Pradesh was, is and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India. Its people will continue to benefit from our development programmes and infrastructure projects,” the MEA said in a statement.
Earlier, the Chinese foreign ministry had objected to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Arunachal Pradesh.
(With inputs from agencies)
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