External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj who is on a week-long trip to the United States to attend the Annual UN General Assembly Session on Friday sacked down Pakistan over the issues of terrorism.
Sushma during her stay has held many bilateral and trilateral meetings with leaders of BRICS, IBSA, SAARC and India-CELAC. In almost all the meeting that she had, the issue of terrorism was one of the main topics of discussion.
External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar in his statement to the press said that “In almost all the multilateral engagements which EAM (External Affairs Minister) had, a reference to the counter-terrorism has been a common thread in most of the press releases and statements. This is something which has come out very strongly.”
Recently Pakistan while addressing at the assembly session had assured that the country d not hold any terrorist sanctuaries on its soil and claimed that it did not harbour any terrorist organisation. However, Sushma Swaraj in almost all her press release and statements have clearly given the signal to Pakistan, saying that countries giving shelter to terrorist sanctuaries should stop using them as an instrument of state policy.
Raveesh Kumar informed that Swaraj also called for the eradication of terrorist networks and all those organisations providing funds to the terrorist groups.
On the sidelines of her trilateral meetings, Sushma Swaraj also met the External Affairs Minister of Kyrgyzstan and Argentina and attended a dinner hosted by the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group later in the evening.
During the meeting with the leaders of the BRICS, the issue of terrorism was strongly discussed and all the members present during the meeting agreed that comprehensive convention on international terrorism CCIT, should be adopted by all countries. Also, all the members gave their consent that there is a need for the reformation in the United Nations Security Council and to increase representation of developing countries. This was a suggestion that India has been giving for years now, and was also said Shared by the US President Donald Trump a few days back while addressing the UN General Assembly Session.
The Indian External Affairs Minister chaired the IBSA meeting and during the discussion said that terrorism was a major threat to the world and everybody unitedly should fight against it. It was also announced during the meeting that India will be hosting the sixth IBSA summit in 2018.
Following these meetings, Swaraj also attended a luncheon with her counterparts from all the members of SAARC nations. During this meeting, India highlighted its contribution and initiatives taken as a part of the regional policy in SAARC. “We mentioned South Asia satellite, we did mention the South Asian University and also the progress which has been made on SAARC disaster management centre. We also highlighted energy and connectivity as major issues,” Indian External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.
Terrorism like in all other meeting was the topic of discussion in this too. However, Kumar did not give any account of the reaction of Pakistan during the discussion.
Finally concluding the day’s schedule Sushma Swaraj co-chaired a meeting of India-CLAC, where the members paid respect to the victims of the recent hurricanes in the region and one minute’s silence was observed.
The Indian External Affairs Minister will address the annual UN General Assembly Session on Saturday and the day after will leave for India.