New Delhi, April 20: External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna asserted Tuesday that Pakistan has to do much more to address India’s “core concern” of terrorism, and that India’s security and development interests were paramount in shaping its foreign policy.
Replying to a discussion in the Lok Sabha on grants to his ministry, during which opposition, led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Murli Manohar Joshi, accused the government of following inn the steps of US instead of pursuing an independent foreign policy, he said: “Foreign policy should have the security of the country as the core. And I would like to assure Murli Manohar Joshi that (India’s) foreign policy is dynamically integrated with our security and developmental interests.”
Presenting the government’s position on bilateral relations with various countries, Krishna spent some time on India’s prickly ties with neighbour Pakistan.
“With Pakistan, the core concern remains mitigation and removal of terrorism. We want Pakistan to do much more on this front,” Krishna said.
He asserted that it has been conveyed to Pakistan at several levels that “unless the question of terror is addressed by Pakistan”, India would not go in on for further talks.
Krishna reminded the house that India suspended the composite dialogue with Pakistan after militants sailed across the waters from Karachi to hit high-profile targets in Mumbai in November 2008, killing at least 166 people.
“We had to take other recourse in order to convey the righteous indignation of the people of this country and it was duly conveyed,” he said.
India has given several dossiers to Pakistan to take action against the mastermind of the attacks, especially Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, who is still publicly spouting venom against India in Pakistan.
Indian and Pakistani foreign secretaries met in Delhi Feb 25, when India again conveyed its concerns to Pakistan to do more on the terror front, Krishna said. He asserted that the meeting was an initiative by India and not at the signal of any other country.
“Very recently, we on our own, not at the signal of others, but on our own, invited the foreign secretary of Pakistan to come here,” he said. His assertion was significant as there had been voices in certain quarters that the US was putting pressure on India to begin talks with Pakistan, so that the latter could concentrate on its western border in Afghanistan.
He said that India was willing to have another round of foreign secretary-level talks.
Both Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani Premier Yusuf Raza Gilani attended the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, but met very briefly on the sidelines.
No meeting between them is also scheduled at the summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to be held in Bhutan later this month.
On China, the minister noted that there were complex issues in the relationship, especially related to the boundary dispute.
“We believe that dialogue and negotiation is the best way to resolve issues with China. We have been open and candid in conveying our concerns with China,” said Krishna.
–Agencies