India’s conflict is with Terroristan: EAM Jaishankar to EU

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar today called on the European Union to view the ongoing conflict as India vs “Terroristan” and warned that New Delhi will strike “deep into Pakistan” if provoked by terror attacks.

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Jaishankar, addressing a press conference in Brussels alongside European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, said India had responded to the threat and practice of terrorism.

Earlier Jaishankar, in interviews to two media houses, said the root cause of the conflict — Pakistan’s support to terrorism — remained unchanged. He warned the western neighbour of “retaliation” if cross-border terrorism continued.

“It (Pakistan) is a country very steeped in its use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy,” the minister said. Asked if conditions that led to the skirmishes last month persisted, Jaishankar said: “If you call the commitment (of Pak) to terrorism, as a source for the tension, absolutely, it is.” Pakistan was training thousands of terrorists in the open and unleashing them, the minister said.

“Our message to them is that if you continue to do the kind of barbaric acts which they did in April (Pahalgam attack), then there is going to be retribution, and it will be against the terrorist organisations and terrorist leadership,” Jaishankar said.

“And we don’t care where they are. If they are deep in Pakistan, we will go deep into Pakistan,” he added.

Asked about the Kashmir issue, Jaishankar said: “This is not a dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir — we simply have zero tolerance to terrorism. And if terrorists attack India, we will hunt them down wherever they are, including in Pakistan.”

India, he said, had been very clear: “As long as cross-border terrorism continues, we will retaliate and take all measures necessary for our self-defence.”

Asked to clarify about the downing of Indian Air Force jets, the minister, without denying the destruction of planes, said India’s fighter planes and missiles inflicted far more extensive damage on the Pakistan air force than vice versa, forcing it to sue for peace. Jaishankar said: “How effective the Rafale was or frankly, how effective other systems were — to me the proof of the pudding is the destroyed and disabled airfields on the Pakistan side.”

“The fighting stopped on May 10 for one reason alone — that morning, we hit the main eight Pakistan airfields and disabled them,” the minister asserted.

To a query on a possible improvement in India’s relations with Beijing, Jaishankar said the question was “how do we ensure peace and stability in the border areas? Without that, everything else is affected. I believe both sides think relations can improve step by step”.