By India Today News Desk: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar retorted to Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s “let’s not weaponise terrorism” comment throughout a press briefing in Goa the place the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers assembly was held from May 4 to five.
Jaishankar and Bhutto, who didn’t maintain bilateral talks, spoke concerning the problem of terrorism throughout the SCO assembly. In a veiled assault on Pakistan, Jaishankar referred to as for combating terrorism in all its varieties and mentioned, “The menace of terrorism continues unabated. There can be no justification for terrorism, including cross-border terrorism. Combating terrorism is one of the original mandates of SCO.”
Without naming Jaishankar, Bhutto reacted, “Let’s not get caught up in weaponising terrorism or trying to earn diplomatic points for it.”
Later within the night, after the conclusion of the SCO assembly, Jaishankar held a press briefing in Panaji the place he referred to the Pakistan Foreign Minister as a “promoter, justifier and spokesperson of terror industry”.
#WATCH | “As a Foreign Minister of an SCO member state, Mr Bhutto Zardari was treated accordingly. As a promoter, justifier and spokesperson of a terrorism industry which is the mainstay of Pakistan, his positions were called out and countered including at the SCO meetingâæ pic.twitter.com/9cLckxLML9
— ANI (@ANI) May 5, 2023
“As a Foreign Minister of an SCO member state, Mr Bhutto Zardari was treated accordingly. As a promoter, justifier and spokesperson of a terrorism industry which is the mainstay of Pakistan, his positions were called out and countered, including at the SCO meeting itself,” Jaishankar mentioned.
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Jaishankar additionally said that India wasn’t “scoring diplomatic points” however “politically and diplomatically exposing Pakistan before the world”.
In phrases of India-Pakistan ties, Jaishankar said that Bilawal’s go to to India does not maintain any significance and requested individuals to not “read into it”.
Bilawal Bhutto landed in Goa to participate within the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers assembly. This is the primary go to by a Pakistani overseas minister to India since Hina Rabbani Khar met the previous External Affairs Minister of India, SM Krishna, in 2011.
Source: www.indiatoday.in
