India's top diplomat was reacting to a statement posted on Twitter earlier in the day by Bhutoo-Zardari about “weaponizing terrorism” in which he urged SCO member nations to avoid using “terrorism” as a diplomatic instrument.
The first visit of Pakistani foreign minister in 12 years to India
7 May 2023 - 11:10
India's top diplomat was reacting to a statement posted on Twitter earlier in the day by Bhutoo-Zardari about “weaponizing terrorism” in which he urged SCO member nations to avoid using “terrorism” as a diplomatic instrument.
Afghan Voice Agency (AVA) - Monitoring: Victims of terrorism do not sit together with its perpetrators to discuss terrorism," Jaishankar said after a meeting of foreign ministers of the member nations of the SCO on Friday in the city of Goa.
India's top diplomat was reacting to a statement posted on Twitter earlier in the day by Bhutoo-Zardari about "“weaponizing terrorism” in which he urged SCO member nations to avoid using “terrorism” as a diplomatic instrument.
“Let’s not get caught up in weaponizing terrorism for diplomatic point scoring,” he said.
“Our success requires us to isolate this issue from geopolitical partisanship. Practical, pragmatic solutions exist for us to put an end to this chapter once and for all. We must stop conflating non-state actors with state actors,” Pakistan's top diplomat added.
“I want no citizen to be a victim of terrorism, we all have to fight terrorism as one, if we remain separate, we will continue to be victims of it,” Bhutto-Zardari said in a video shared by the Secretariat of Pakistan People’s Party Chairman on Twitter.
Jaishankar's hostile remarks targeting his Pakistani counterpart came also in reaction of a militant attack earlier on Friday that killed five Indian Army officers in the Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir, a restive, mostly Muslim-populated region that remains fervently opposed to India's oppressive rule of the area near the Pakistani border.
India regularly attributes the militant attacks in the region to suspected Pakistani intruders.
Bhutto-Zardari, the son of assassinated Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, was on a two-day visit to the Indian city of Goa to attend the SCO member state meeting of the foreign ministers of the forum’s eight members and four observer countries.
His visit marks the first ever visit of a Pakistani foreign minister in 12 years to India, but on a bitter note, as the host, Jaishankar, and Bhutto-Zardari did not even shake hands at the SCO meeting at the Indian venue.
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