Ahead of Bilawal trip, EAM again calls out Pakistan for terror support

NEW DELHI: As Pakistan foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari prepares to land in India on Tuesday for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting in Goa, his counterpart S Jaishankar again called out Pakistan for its support to cross-border terrorism.
Ahead of a likely bilateral meeting with Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang on the margins of SCO, Jaishankar also said India had been trying to advance relations with all countries without seeking exclusivity and that China “falls in a somewhat different category because of the boundary dispute and the currently abnormal nature of our ties”.
“That is an outcome of a violation of agreements regarding border management by them,” he said at an event in Dominican Republic.
“India’s most important priorities are in its neighbourhood. Given its size and economic strength, it’s very much for the collective benefit of everyone that India, under PM Modi, has a generous and non-reciprocal approach to smaller neighbours. It’s known as neighbourhood-first policy,” the minister said. “This has seen a dramatic increase in cooperation, contacts and connectivity in the region. The exception to this is Pakistan in view of the cross-border terrorism it supports,” he added.
This was the second time during his ongoing visit to Latin America and the Caribbean that Jaishankar targeted Pakistan over the issue of terrorism, indicating further that a formal bilateral meeting with Bilawal is unlikely.
While ex-Pakistan high commissioner Abdul Basit claimed India had “informally” approached Pakistan for a meeting, government sources here strongly denied this. Diplomatic sources on both sides confirmed on Saturday neither side had asked for a bilateral meeting. Both are expected to have bilateral meetings with their counterparts from other SCO member-states.