‘Terror by Night, Trade by Day’: Jaishankar Tears Into Pakistan Over Cross-border Terrorism

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday said that India cannot allow the normalization of terrorism and stressed that India cannot have a normal relationship with Pakistan so that it continues to be involved in cross-border terrorism.

Speaking at an event in New Delhi, the external affairs minister said that India could not allow cross-border terrorism to become the basis for starting discussion with Pakistan.

In a veiled attack on Pakistan, the Ministry of External Affairs said it was time to not allow terrorism to happen at night and commerce by day.

“You haven’t heard much about SAARC because in the past few years, there wasn’t much to hear about. We haven’t had meetings because you have a SAARC member that doesn’t meet all the basic requirements of what a good membership is, and today that’s an obstacle for SAARC. South Asia for Regional Cooperation”.

You know I said we can’t continue with acts of terror and I say cooperation will continue nonetheless. So I think there are issues there and it is time to recognize the seriousness of these issues and not allow terrorism to happen at night and trade during the day. I don’t think the country is well served by that years.

On the issue of Canada’s dealings with Gulf elements, the minister said their position appears to be motivated by the voting bank’s policies.

He noted, “Their responses are constrained by what they view as voting bank compulsion. We have made it clear that if there are activities in Canada that impinge on our national security or territorial integrity, we will have to respond. You can see that this has affected our relations in many ways in the past few years.”

(with input from ANI and IANS)