External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday said India can’t allow terrorism to be normalised and underlined that India cannot have a normal relationship with Pakistan until it continues to involve in cross-border terrorism.
Speaking at an event in New Delhi, the EAM said India cannot allow cross-border terrorism to become the basis for initiating a discussion with Pakistan.
In a veiled attack on Pakistan, the EAM said it is time to not allow terrorism to happen by night and trade by day.
“You have not heard very much about SAARC because, in the last few years, there isn’t very much to hear about. We have not had meetings because you have a member of SAARC who doesn’t conform to all the basic requirements of what a good membership is, and that is today an obstacle reality for the SAARC to meet.”
“You know I said we cannot continue with acts of terrorism and say the cooperation will continue to happen nevertheless. So, I think there are issues there and it is time to recognize the seriousness of those issues and not allow terrorism to happen by night and trade by day. I don’t think the country is well served by that,” he said, as reported by ANI.
#WATCH | Delhi: EAM Dr S Jaishankar on Pakistan, says, “We can’t allow terrorism to be normalised, we can not allow that to become a basis to come in discussion with Pakistan. Until there is a departure from the abbreviation of policy of cross-border terrorism, it is not possible… pic.twitter.com/LLAW10tEUh— ANI (@ANI) June 28, 2023
On the issue of Canada handling Khalistani elements, the Minister said that their stand seems to be driven 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.
(With inputs from ANI, IANS)
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