Rejecting Sharif’s 4-point formula for peace, India said Pakistan needs to address “just one” issue of ending cross-border terror for the dialogue to start on all outstanding matters as it proposed NSA-level talks to discuss the matter.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi called up External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to congratulate her on her excellent speech at the UN General Assembly, and for rightly emphasizing on the need to end all forms of terror.
“This is the need of the hour”.
“How can we have a Security Council in 2015 which still reflects the geo-political architecture of 1945? How can we have a Security Council which still does not give place as a permanent member to Africa and Latin America?”, she questioned.
“We have to include more developing nations in the decision making structures of the Security Council. Imparting more legitimacy and balance to the Council would restore its credibility and equip it to confront the challenges of our times”, she added, echoing Prime Minister Modi’s opinion.
Swaraj also exhorted the global community to not categorise terrorists as “good” or “bad” and underscored the need for “zero tolerance” for terrorism and to not ascribe any religion to terrorists as they have no religion.
She said India has been the largest provider of the worldwide security by the United Nations with a total of 18,000 peace-keepers deployed so far.
The sides reiterated support for the reform of the UN Security Council and Swaraj praised the role of Chair of Inter-Governmental Negotiations Ambassador Courtnay Rattray of Jamaica on his work to move forward with text-based negotiations on the reform process.
Swaraj said about 8,000 Indian military and police personnel are still deployed by United Nations in 10 missions working in highly challenging environments.
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Swaraj also paid tribute to the more than 3,300 peace-keepers, including 161 from India who sacrificed their lives in the operations. The External Affairs Minister’sno-holds-barred rebuttal, taken together with the firm responses from her ministry’s officials soon after Mr Sharif raked up the Kashmir issue in his address to the UNGA, clearly indicates the formulation of a new, bold and less defensive strategy to deal with Pakistan.
