“We are not going to live with it. So our message to them is that if you continue to do the kind of barbaric acts which they did in April, then there is going to be retribution, and that retribution will be against the terrorist organisations and the terrorist leadership,” Jaishankar said.
“And we don’t care where they are. If they are deep in Pakistan, we will go deep into Pakistan,” he added.Jaishankar is in Belgium’s capital Brussels for high-level trade talks with the European Union leaders. He further highlighted that Pakistan is training thousands of terrorists openly and uses it as a state mechanism to incite chaos in India.
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“Pakistan is a country very steeped in its use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy. That is the whole issue,” he stated, further highlighting that India’s strikes on May 10 morning hitting the Pakistani airbases led to the ceasefire ‘understanding’ between the two countries.
“The fighting stopped on the 10th for one reason and one reason only, which was that on the 10th morning, we hit these eight Pakistani, the main eight Pakistani airfields, and disabled them,” Jaishankar said.
“And don’t take my word for it, these are images that are available on Google. You can look at those runways and those hangars which have taken the hit,” he added.
In a different interview with the French publication, Le Figaro, Jaishankar highlighted that the matter of concern is terrorism, stating that it has become India and Pakistan issue because Islamabad keeps harbouring and supporting terrorism.
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He said the dispute is not about Kashmir, when asked about the situation in the region, but with terrorism which has caused damage to the country in the past as well.
He asserted that India will pursue the terrorists wherever they may be, including in Pakistan, making it clear that as long as the cross-border terrorism continues, India will respond and take all necessary measures in self defence.
India’s stance on Russia-Ukraine war
When asked about India’s side on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, Jaishankar clarified that India does not stand with one particular country. “No,” Jaishankar said.
He added that India has helped both the countries and PM Modi has visited Moscow as well as Kyiv. Jaishankar called for direct negotiation between the two parties.
He outlined that most of the countries in the world have witnessed their economy to be negatively affected by the war. He said that the whole world wants the war to end and India is speaking on behalf of the “Global South.”
