Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 5: Soon after the news came about the killing of five Indian soldiers during an anti-terrorist operation in Rajouri sector in Jammu and Kashmir on Friday morning, the external affairs minister S Jaishankar called his Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto Zardari the “promoter, justifier and spokesperson of a terrorism industry.”
Taking a pot shot at Islamabad at the meeting of the foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Goa, Jaishankar said, “As a Foreign Minister of an SCO member state, Mr Bhutto Zardari was treated accordingly. As a promoter, justifier and I’m sorry to say, spokesperson of a terrorism industry, which is the mainstay of Pakistan, his positions were called out and they were countered… including at the SCO meeting itself,” Jaishankar said.
“Victims of terrorism do not sit together with its perpetrators to discuss terrorism,” Jaishankar said. “Bhutto Zardari came as Foreign Minister of a SCO member state; that’s part of multilateral diplomacy and we don’t see anything more than that,” Jaishankar said. The two foreign ministers did not hold a bilateral at the SCO meeting.
“On terrorism, Pakistan’s credibility is depleting even faster than its forex reserves,” Mr Jaishankar said in a clear swipe at Pakistan’s struggle with a huge financial crisis that has forced the country to knock from door to door for loans.
Jaishankar further stated that the victims of terrorism do not sit together with its perpetrators to discuss terrorism. His remarks came after Bhutto, earlier in the day, said the “collective security of our peoples is our joint responsibility. Terrorism continues to threaten global security.” In remarks that appeared to take a pot-shot at India, Bhutto said: “Let’s not get caught up in weaponizing terrorism for diplomatic point scoring.”
Addressing a question on the G20 meet that is to be held in Jammu and Kashmir, Jaishankar also said since the G20 meet is happening in all the states and union territories of India it is “completely natural” to have a G20 meet in Jammu and Kashmir also.
Jaishankar’s comments came on a day when five Indian soldiers were killed in action during an operation to find terrorists hiding in a forest near Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch. The terrorists, suspected to be Pakistanis, had ambushed an army truck last week, killing five other soldiers.
India has umpteen times showed proof of Pakistan’s active involvement in supporting terrorism on its soil to arm and send terrorists to Jammu and Kashmir. UN designated global terrorist Masood Azhar, 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed and many others are in Pakistan.
Ties between the two countries have been strained for the last seven years. Bhutto Zardari, the son of assassinated Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, is the first Pakistani Foreign Minister to visit India in nearly 12 years. In 2011, then Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar had visited India. The last minister-level visit from Pakistan was in 2016 by Sartaj Aziz. Bhutto landed in Goa on Thursday. The SCO foreign ministers’ meeting was also attended by Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, among others.
At the SCO meeting, Jaishankar called for united efforts to fight terrorism. He said taking eyes off terrorism would be bad for the SCO. “We must not allow anybody – individual or state – to hide behind non-state actors… While the world was engaged in facing Covid and its consequences, the menace of terrorism continued unabated. Taking our eyes of this menace would be detrimental to our security interests,” Jaishankar said.
Speaking on the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Jaishankar said connectivity is good for progress but connectivity cannot violate the territorial integrity and sovereignty of states. “This has been our long-standing position. Nobody should have any doubt about it”, said the External Affairs Minister. Saying that India and China have to take disengagement talks forward, Jaishankar said India-China relations are not normal and cannot be normal if peace and tranquillity in border areas are disturbed.