Engagement with Pakistan needs to continue, says India

The government has said that its engagement with neighbouring Pakistan needs to continue even as talks have come to a standstill over the issue of India being upset with state-sponsored terror.

“Engagement with Pakistan needs to continue. We cannot change our neighbours, we have to deal with them. But we have to deal with them with our eyes open. Let there be peace there will be dialogue,” Minister of State for External Affairs MJ Akbar told reporters here on Wednesday during a press conference.

Akbar said over the last two and a half years of the present government, India has tried to achieve the best results with Pakistan under the ‘Neighbourhood Policy’ even though that country has tried to “disrupt” efforts made to revive a dialogue.

“Peace cannot take place under a stray of bullets. Talks and terror cannot go together. This has to stop. There can be no other way for any forward movement,” he said.

Bilateral ties between India and Pakistan underwent one of its worst phases past year with successive attacks on Indian armed forces allegedly by Pakistan-backed terrorists that began with a terror strike at the Pathankot air base followed by Uri and Nagrota.

This made India conduct a spate of surgical strikes on the so-called terror launch pads across the Line of Control (LoC) in August.

Taking a dig at Pakistan, VK Singh, also Minister of State for External Affairs, said all countries in the South Asia region “barring one” have demonstrated their united efforts to fight against terrorism.

“The aim of the surgical strikes that we conducted was to convey to Pakistan that we will not countenance continued terrorism as the new normal in our relationship. Our own good faith has been amply demonstrated time and again through repeated initiatives to normalize the relationship. However, as we have often stated, talks and terror cannot go together,” Singh added.

On the issue of China vetoing India’s move at the UN to designate Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar as a terrorist, Akbar said India expects China “to hear the voice of the world and not just India.”

India’s NSG Membership

According to Singh, India’s membership at the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG) was discussed during an internal meeting in Vienna that took place on November 11.

“Our engagement with China is purely driven by our national interest. Certainly, there are areas of divergence with China but that happens in any matured relationship,” he said.

Singh added that Chinese industrial parks are progressing well, which are coming up in Pune and Vadodara, especially in segments such as machine and tools.

COMMENT NOW