Finance
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar stated unequivocally on Wednesday that India cannot allow cross-border terrorism to be used to initiate talks with Pakistan.
In a town hall meeting, he stated that a normal relationship with Pakistan is not conceivable until the “abrogation of this policy of cross-border terrorism” occurs.
Pakistan, he said, is an exception in terms of its neighbors.
“The fact is we can’t allow terrorism to be normalised. We cannot allow that to become a basis to come into discussion with Pakistan,” Jaishankar said.
“To me, it’s a fairly commonsense proposition. If anything, I am still a little perplexed by why we have not arrived at this position earlier. But we have arrived at it now,” he minister added.
According to Jaishankar, it is clearly impossible to have a normal relationship till this policy of cross-border terrorism is abandoned.
Concerning Canada’s treatment of Khalistani elements, the Minister stated that their stance appears to be motivated by vote bank politics.
“Their responses have been constrained by what they regard as vote bank compulsions,” he noted. “We have made it very clear that if there are activities in Canada that impinge on our national security or territorial integrity, then we will have to respond. You can see that this has impacted our ties in many ways in the last few years,” Jaishankar underlined.
Source:IANS
