Highlighting the intricate nature of maintaining relations with a neighbour like Pakistan, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar stated that Islamabad openly employs terrorism as a tool of state policy and does not hide it.
He stressed that India will no longer sidestep this issue, emphasising that the prevailing sentiment in the country is to address the challenge of terrorism head-on and not overlook the problem.
Speaking at the Institute of South Asian Studies of the National University of Singapore during his three-nation visit, S Jaishankar discussed his book ‘Why Bharat Matters’.
“Every country wants a stable neighbourhood…we have been unfortunate, or ill-starred to be blessed with the one we have to our west. How do you deal with a neighbour, who does not hide the fact that they use terrorism as an instrument of statecraft?” he said.
Making an indirect reference to Pakistan, the minister mentioned that terrorism in that country fosters terrorism on almost an “industry level” and resembles an “assembly line” process.
