In terms of initiatives by the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc), Jaishankar said that while other countries of the region agree, Pakistan has issues.
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He said at a presser: “India’s diplomacy is now more practical, more development focused”.
Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar on Wednesday said terrorism was the main issue between India and Pakistan and making it “difficult” to better their ties. He further said India has taken strident steps in last two years to reach out to Pakistan to ensure cordial relationship, adding that it has not achieved the desired results. “We have learnt to be patient and the mix of diplomacy and patience did see through hard situations”, said Jaishankar.
He went on to say: “Looking at the neighbourhood, we clearly face a unique challenge in respect to one country which is Pakistan”. The journalist also claimed that the people of “Azad Kashmir were all Indians”, and said to the State Department official that the “time has come now to speak out” for those people as they were not allowed to express their views.
Jaishankar is willing to accept an invitation from his Pakistani counterpart to discuss the recent spike in violence along the countries’ border, sources in the Indian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
Amid a debate over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s comments on Balochistan in his Independence Day address, Government feels it was an expression of concern for people of the Pakistan’s troubled region and that India’s humanity does not stop at its border.
The response was handed over to Pakistan by Indian high commissioner to Islamabad Gautam Bambawale.
Voicing concerns over alleged human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir and PoK, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein today appealed to both India and Pakistan to grant his team access to Jammu and Kashmir as well as Pakistan occupied Kashmir.
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Elaborating on contemporary and relevant issues, MEA Spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted, ‘At this time, they include a stoppage of Pakistani support for cross-border terrorism, infiltration of terrorists like Bahadur Ali, incitement to violence and terrorism across the border, parading of internationally recognised terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Syed Salahuddin, and honest follow up on the Mumbai attack trial and the Pathankot attack investigation in Pakistan’.
