Singapore
Underlining that Pakistan is sponsoring terrorism at almost an ‘industry level’, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday asserted that the mood in India now is not to overlook terrorists and it ‘will not skirt this problem anymore’.
Jaishankar, who is on a three-day visit to Singapore, made these remarks during a Q&A round held post his lecture session on his authored book ‘Why Bharat Matters’ at Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) of National University of Singapore (NUS).
Every country wants a stable neighbourhood, if nothing else you want at least a quiet neighbourhood, he said in response to a question on India’s ties with Pakistan.
Underlining that Pakistan has been sponsoring terrorism against India, Jaishankar asked, how do you deal with a neighbour who does not hide the fact that they use terrorism as an instrument of statecraft? it’s not a one-off happening, but very sustained, almost at an industry level. So came into conclusion that they have to find a way of addressing, that dodging the problem gets us nowhere, but invites more trouble,” he said.
In India now, Jaishankar said, ‘the mood is not to overlook terrorists’.