Pakistan sponsors terror, won’t overlook it anymore, says Jaishankar in Singapore

Accusing Pakistan of sponsoring terrorism almost at an “industry level”, Indian external affairs minister S Jaishankar made it clear on Saturday (March 23) that India “will not skirt this problem any more”.

On a three-day visit to Singapore to promote his book “Why Bharat Matters”, Jaishankar said India, like every other country, was a stable neighbourhood.

He spoke at the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

Terror craft

"Every country wants a stable neighbourhood... if nothing else you want at least a quiet neighbourhood," he said on India's ties with Pakistan. The problem was that Pakistan sponsored terror against India, he said.

“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 what we have come to conclude is that we have to find a way of addressing (the menace), that dodging the problem gets us nowhere, it only invites more trouble," he said.

No more forgiving

"I don't have a quick instantaneous fix (to this issue). But what I can tell you is that India will not skirt this problem any more. We are not going to say, 'well, that happened and let's continue our dialogue'...

“We have a problem and we must be honest enough to face up to that problem, however difficult it is... We should not give the other country a free pass, saying there's nothing they can do about it or it's a very hard problem, or there's so much else at stake that let us overlook," he said.

The mood in India now, Jaishankar said, "is not to overlook terrorists".