New York: Elimination of terrorism in all its forms is a precondition not only for fruitful cooperation but also for the very survival of the South Asian region, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar tweeted after a South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) meeting here Thursday which Pakistan boycotted when he was making his opening statement.
“Ours is really not just a story of missed opportunities but also of deliberate obstacles. Terrorism is among them. In India’s view, elimination of terrorism in all its forms is a precondition not only for fruitful cooperation but also for the very survival of our region itself,” S Jaishankar said on Twitter after the meeting.
Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had boycotted Jaishankar’s opening statement at the meeting of the SAARC Council of Foreign Ministers. Pakistan said the country will not engage with India ‘until and unless’ it lifts the ‘siege’ in Kashmir. Hence the meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) session started without the Pak minister.
S Jaishankar was among the first ministers to arrive for the SAARC Ministerial Meeting. He was there for over 45 minutes and then left. He didn’t make a comment when asked about Qureshi boycotting the SAARC meeting. Jaishankar said ‘No’ when asked to comment on the absence of his Pakistani counterpart during his opening statement.
Qureshi arrived only after Jaishankar left the room. Asked about being late for the meeting, Qureshi said he did want to sit with the Indian minister as a protest over Kashmir.
Coming out of the meeting, Qureshi said the SAARC nations have decided to hold the next summit in Islamabad, the date and time of which his yet to be decided. He said India is ‘silent’ on the decision to hold the meeting in Islamabad.
SAARC is a regional grouping in Asia comprising India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.
PTI