India today reiterated its position that any India-Pakistan engagement has to be bilateral. Briefing media in New Delhi this afternoon, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said talks and terror can not go together. He added that New Delhi is open to discussing the handing over to India of noted terrorists whose list was provided to Pakistan some years ago. He underlined that any bilateral discussion on Jammu and Kashmir will only be on the vacating of illegally occupied Indian territory by Pakistan. On the Indus Waters Treaty, the spokesperson said it will remain in abeyance until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism.
On multi-party MP delegations, the spokesperson said the central idea is that this is a political mission. He says India wants to convey its resolve to fight terrorism. He said New Delhi wants to exhort the world to hold those responsible for cross-border terrorism accountable. Mr Jaiswal said delegations are going to 33 nations of the world and these nations are India’s strong international partners, as most of these nations are also members of the UN Security Council.
Replying to another query, the spokespersons said India expects Turkiye to strongly urge Pakistan to end its support to cross-border terrorism and take credible and verifiable actions against the terror ecosystem it has harbored for decades. He said relations are built on the basis of sensitivities to each other’s concerns.
The spokesperson also said that National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and the Chinese Foreign Minister and Special Representative on Boundary Issue, Wang Yi had spoken to each other on 10th May. He said the NSA conveyed India’s resolute stance against cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan. Mr Jaiswal noted that the Chinese side is aware that mutual trust, mutual respect and mutual sensitivity remain the basis of India-China relations. On the hiring of lobby firms in the US, the spokesperson says this is not a new practice and this has been in place for several decades now. These firms have been regularly engaged by the Embassy as per the requirements of the situation. Mr Jaiswal stated that all such engagements are available in the public domain. In the run up to the Nuclear Deal in 2007 and thereafter, firms were engaged to strengthen India’s case. The spokesperson added that such a practice is common among Embassies and other organizations in Washington DC and in other parts of the US.
