India’s expectation of Pakistan has never been very high: Jaishankar on Pak FM’s personal attack on Modi
India does not place a high level of expectation on Pakistanis, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Monday in response to his Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s personal attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Pakistan’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) described Bhutto-Zardari’s remarks as “uncivilised” and a “new low” even for the country.
As far as what he (Pakistan’s foreign minister) said is concerned, I think my ministry has expressed our opinions very clearly. Ahead of India Today’s India-Japan conclave, Jaishankar stated that he and his team “spoke what needed to be said.”
In response to a question about whether Jaishankar was upset by the remarks against the prime minister, he said: “We never have very high expectations of Pakistanis.” Arindam Bagchi, MEA spokesperson, condemned Bhutto-Zardari’s remarks on Friday by saying the Pakistan foreign minister’s frustrations should be directed at those who have made terrorist enterprises a part of their “state policy”.
Osama bin Laden is glorified in Pakistan as a martyr, and terrorists like Lakhvi, Hafiz Saeed, Masood Azhar, Sajid Mir and Dawood Ibrahim are protected. There are no other countries that can boast of 126 terrorists and 27 terrorist entities that are UN-designated terrorists,” Bagchi said.
A Pakistani foreign minister attacked PM Modi personally and attacked the RSS after External Affairs Minister Jaishankar told the UN Security Council that the “contemporary epicentre of terrorism” is still very active and called for collective action.
While Jaishankar did not mention any countries, it was clear that he was making a veiled reference to Pakistan.
Later, he told reporters in New York that the world regards Pakistan as the epicentre of terrorism and reminded Islamabad of US president Hillary Clinton’s blunt warning in 2011 that snakes in one’s backyard will bite those who keep them.
