Jaishankar: Called out Pakistan’s Bilawal in SCO meet for acting as terror mouthpiece: Jaishankar | India News
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In a scathing, if not unprecedented, attack on Pakistan after the meeting, Jaishankar said victims and perpetrators of terrorism can’t sit together and that Pakistan’s credibility was depleting faster than its forex reserves. Jaishankar was addressing the media after the anti-terror operation in Rajouri in which 5 army jawans lost their lives. This was the second major terror-related incident in J&K in the past few weeks and since the official announcement about the G20 meeting that India will host in Srinagar later this month.
Jaishankar 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,” said the minister, adding it’s 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,” said Jaishankar, responding to a query about Bilawal’s peace overtures in which he had told the Pakistan media 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,” said Jaishankar, responding to Bilawal’s remark that “peace is our destiny”. Bilawal had left for Pakistan before Jaishankar’s press interaction.
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EAM Jaishankar slams Bhutto for ‘weaponising terrorism’ comment at SCO meet
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 Zardari’s assertion 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 also 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 though as the practice at 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”.
“Menace of terrorism has continued unabated and taking our eyes off it would be detrimental to our security interests. There can be no justification for terrorism and it must be stopped in all its forms and manifestations including cross-border terrorism,” said Jaishankar in his opening remarks in the meeting. With his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang also present, he 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 was the only foreign minister with whom Jaishankar didn’t have a bilateral meeting. Briefing Pakistan journalists after the meeting, he blamed India’s decision to revoke the special status of J&K for the current stalemate in ties. Bilawal, however, complimented Jaishankar for not allowing bilateral differences to come in the way of SCO cooperation and said he was happy with the treatment he got here.
Jaishankar welcomed all guests on camera to the meeting venue in the morning with a namaste, and not a handshake. While no photo of the dinner on Thursday was made public, Pakistani sources were quoted by the media accompanying Bilawal as confirming that the 2 leaders shook hands and greeted each other. India has not confirmed the handshake.
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