Can't use terror as tool to force us to negotiating table: EAM on Pak offer

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 31

India wanted good neighbourly ties, but would not let terrorism be used as a tool to force the country to the negotiating table, said External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, in an apparent response to Pakistan on Thursday expressing its desire for good relations but also asking it (India) to show “seriousness” in having a dialogue to resolve outstanding issues, including Kashmir.

“We have been very clear that we will not normalise and rationalise terrorism. We want good neighbourly relations with everybody. But good neighbourly relations does not mean excusing, looking away or rationalising terrorism. That we are very clear,” he said in Nicosia while interacting with the Indian expatriates.

Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch had maintained that they “pursued a policy of peaceful neighbourhood, based on mutual respect and sovereign equality, with all countries of South Asia”. Jaishankar’s trip is also being seen as an attempt to build ties with Turkey’s geopolitical rivals, just as Ankara is strengthening its relations with Pakistan and Uzbekistan. Cyprus had said that meetings with Jaishankar would discuss Turkey’s “provocative actions” as well as current regional and international issues of mutual interest.

Jaishankar also acknowledged that the state of India’s relations with China was not normal. “The challenges on the borders intensified during the Covid period. And you all know that today the state of our relations with China is not normal. They are not normal because we will not agree to any attempt to change the Line of Actual Control (LAC) unilaterally. So on the foreign policy side, on the national security side, I can share with you a picture of firmness on diplomacy,” he observed.

Outgoing Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had last week said that Beijing was ready to work with India for the “steady and sound growth” of bilateral ties.

A day after signing three agreements with Cyprus, Jaishankar promised that the Mediterranean would see more of India in the future and the relationship with Cyprus would be an anchor. He also listed seven areas where the two countries could work together, including in finance, shipping, tourism, mobility flows and third-country projects.

“The Mediterranean is a region of growing interest to us. If you look at our other relationships in the last few years with countries of both north and south Mediterranean, there has been very visible intensification of ties,” Jaishankar said while addressing a business community event in Limassol, the second largest city in Cyprus, on Friday. Besides the MoU on defence and military cooperation, the two sides inked a letter of intent on migration and mobility and a framework agreement on international solar alliance.

Won’t look away

We will not normalise and rationalise terrorism. Want good neighbourly ties. But that does not mean excusing, looking away or rationalising terrorism. That we are very clear. — S Jaishankar, External Affairs Minister

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