Mumbai:

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has ripped into Pakistan yet again, comparing the neighbouring country with a “cancer” that is now impacting its own people. Delivering the 19th Nani A Palkhivala Memorial Lecture in Mumbai, he also spoke about India’s approach to diplomacy in the last decade.

“Pakistan is an exception in our neighbourhood, in view of its support to cross border terrorism. That cancer is now consuming its own body politic. The entire subcontinent has a shared interest in Pakistan abjuring that approach,” said Mr Jaishankar on Saturday.

The foreign minister, known for his sharp takes on foreign matters related to India, also noted that India should not fall behind in developing critical and emerging technologies. “India may be non-West, but its strategic interests ensure it is not anti-west,” the minister said.

Highlighting the challenge arising from the “weaponisation of financial institutions”, he said India must up its internal growth as well as de-risk its external exposure.

Mr Jaishankar said India sees itself as a ‘vishwabandhu’, or a friend of all, and a reliable partner on the global stage, while striving to maximise friendships and minimise problems. But that is done by factoring in India’s interests, he added.

The minister also spoke about how regional players could serve an important role. India is striving to develop ties with the middle powers and it has helped expand its diplomatic profile, said Mr Jaishankar.

He summed up India’s diplomatic approach in three terms: mutual respect, mutual sensitivity, and mutual interest.

“The last decade has showcased how to progress on multiple fronts, advancing diverse relationships without making anyone an exclusive one. Polarised situations have brought out our ability to bridge divides,” he added.

Mumbai:

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has ripped into Pakistan yet again, comparing the neighbouring country with a “cancer” that is now impacting its own people. Delivering the 19th Nani A Palkhivala Memorial Lecture in Mumbai, he also spoke about India’s approach to diplomacy in the last decade.

“Pakistan is an exception in our neighbourhood, in view of its support to cross border terrorism. That cancer is now consuming its own body politic. The entire subcontinent has a shared interest in Pakistan abjuring that approach,” said Mr Jaishankar on Saturday.

The foreign minister, known for his sharp takes on foreign matters related to India, also noted that India should not fall behind in developing critical and emerging technologies. “India may be non-West, but its strategic interests ensure it is not anti-west,” the minister said.

Read: “Visa Operations In Bengaluru…”: S Jaishankar On Priority For US Visit

Highlighting the challenge arising from the “weaponisation of financial institutions”, he said India must up its internal growth as well as de-risk its external exposure.

Mr Jaishankar said India sees itself as a ‘vishwabandhu’, or a friend of all, and a reliable partner on the global stage, while striving to maximise friendships and minimise problems. But that is done by factoring in India’s interests, he added.

The minister also spoke about how regional players could serve an important role. India is striving to develop ties with the middle powers and it has helped expand its diplomatic profile, said Mr Jaishankar.

Read: “Haath Milaya, Aa Gaye Wapis”: S Jaishankar On Pakistan Visit For SCO Summit

He summed up India’s diplomatic approach in three terms: mutual respect, mutual sensitivity, and mutual interest.

“The last decade has showcased how to progress on multiple fronts, advancing diverse relationships without making anyone an exclusive one. Polarised situations have brought out our ability to bridge divides,” he added.

New Delhi:

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday that he is not going to Islamabad to discuss “India-Pakistan relations”. He said his visit is about the SCO Summit 2024, which is taking place in the neighbouring country. The minister said that he will be traveling to Pakistan only to be a “good member of the SCO”.

“Yes, I am scheduled to go to Pakistan in the middle of this month and that is for the meeting of the SCO –the heads of government meeting,” Mr Jaishankar said while delivering the Sardar Patel Lecture on Governance, organized by IC Centre for Governance in New Delhi.

“I expect that there would be a lot of media interest because the very nature of the relationship is such and I think we will deal with it. But I do want to say it, I will be there for a multilateral event, I mean I am not going there to discuss India-Pakistan relations. I am going there to be a good member of the SCO. Since I am a courteous and civil person, I will behave myself accordingly,” he underlined.

The External Affairs Minister highlighted that the SCO Summit is taking place in Islamabad this time, because, similar to India, Pakistan too, is a recent member of the bloc.

“Normally the Prime Minister goes to the high-level meeting, the heads of state, that’s in line with the tradition. It so happens that the meeting is taking place in Pakistan, because, like us, they are a relatively recent member,” Mr Jaishankar added.

On being asked about his planning before he heads to the summit, the EAM stated, “Of course, I am planning for it. In my business, you plan for everything that you are going to do, and for a lot of things that you are not going to do, and which could happen also, you plan for that as well.”

On Friday, the MEA said Mr Jaishankar will be traveling to Pakistan to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit scheduled to take place in October.

On being asked about India’s participation in the upcoming SCO Summit, the MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “EAM Jaishankar will lead a delegation to Pakistan to participate in the SCO summit which will be held in Islamabad on October 15-16.”

Earlier in August, India received an invitation from Pakistan for the SCO Council of Heads of Government (CHG) in-person meeting.

In May 2023, Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari visited India for the SCO meeting in Goa. This was the first visit by a Foreign Minister of Pakistan to India in six years.

The SCO is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation established on June 15, 2001, in Shanghai by Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Its predecessor was the mechanism of the Shanghai Five. Currently, the SCO countries include nine member states: India, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The SCO has three observer states: Afghanistan, Mongolia, and Belarus.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

United Nations:

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar today sent a strongly-worded warning to Pakistan when he addressed the 79th United Nations General Assembly session in New York today.

Talking about Pakistan’s decades-old policy of terrorism, Mr Jaishankar warned Islamabad that its “actions will most certainly have consequences”.

Mr Jaishankar, who spoke about the ‘Pakistan problem’ towards the end of his nearly-twenty-minute speech, made it clear to Islamabad that “Pakistan’s policy of cross-border terrorism can and will never succeed”.

Pakistan, which has been facing its worst economic crises since its formation in 1947, has been left behind because of its “conscious choices with disastrous consequences”, the External Affairs Minister said.

“Many countries get left behind due to circumstances beyond their control. But some make conscious choices with disastrous consequences. A premier example is our neighbour, Pakistan. Unfortunately, their misdeeds affect others as well, especially the neighbourhood,” Mr Jaishankar said.

Highlighting the impact of Islamabad’s terror policies, Mr Jaishankar said “When this polity instils such fanaticism among its people, its GDP can only be measured in terms of radicalisation and its exports in the form of terrorism.”

Taking a swipe at Pakistan’s fate due to is policy of radicalising its citizens, especially the youth, the foreign minister said, “Today, we see the ills it sought to visit on others consume its own society. It can’t blame the world; this is only karma,”

The foreign minister further said that “A dysfunctional nation coveting the lands of others must be exposed and must be countered. We heard some bizarre assertions from it at this forum yesterday. So let me make India’s position perfectly clear.”

Just before concluding his speech, Mr Jaishankar said, “Pakistan’s cross-border terrorism policy will never succeed. And it can have no expectation of impunity,” adding that “On the contrary, actions will certainly have consequences. The issue to be resolved between us is now only the vacation of illegally occupied Indian territory by Pakistan. And of course, the abandonment of Pakistan’s longstanding attachment to terrorism.”
 

A file photo of Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif 
| Photo Credit: AP

Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has expressed hope for the betterment of ties with India after the general elections in India. Mr. Asif’s comments came days after External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in Singapore said that Pakistan is sponsoring terrorism almost at an “industry level” and the mood in India now is not to overlook terrorists and it “will not skirt this problem anymore”.

“Our relations with India could be improved after elections there,” Mr. Asif said while speaking to reporters outside the Parliament House in Islamabad on April 1 , adding that the bilateral ties between the two countries have their “own background”.

Voting for 543 Lok Sabha seats in India will take place between April 19 and June 4, spread across seven phases.

Also read: Pakistan to ‘seriously’ consider restoring trade ties with India: Foreign Minister Dar

Islamabad and New Delhi have a long history of strained relations, primarily due to the Kashmir issue as well as the cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan. In 2019, Pakistan downgraded its diplomatic ties with New Delhi after the Indian government abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution, revoking the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcating the State into two Union Territories. The decision, Islamabad said, undermined the environment for holding talks between the neighbours.

Pakistan has been insisting that the onus of improving the ties was on India and urging it to undo its “unilateral” steps in Kashmir as a sort of pre-condition to start the talks. India has dismissed the suggestion and made it clear to Pakistan that the entire Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh were integral and inalienable parts of the country.

New Delhi has also asserted that the constitutional measures taken by the Indian government to ensure socio-economic development and good governance in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir are matters internal to India. It has been maintaining that it desires normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan while insisting that the onus is on Islamabad to create an environment that is free of terror and hostility for such an engagement.

Pakistan, which borders China, India, Afghanistan, and Iran has witnessed tensions with other neighbours, except for China, following cross-border attacks from Iran and Afghanistan.