Foreign Secretaries Meet On, Modi Voiced 'Core Concerns' About Pakistan: India
NEW DELHI: Ahead of the much-awaited foreign secretary-level talks on Aug 25, India and Pakistan exchanged some sharp words after Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused Pakistan of waging a proxy war against India.
India's external affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin, reacting to Pakistan terming Modi's statement as "most unfortunate", said at a briefing here that Modi was merely articulating India's "core concerns about relations" with Pakistan over terrorism emanating from its soil. But he said that the foreign secretaries of both countries are to meet on Aug 25 in Islamabad to take the dialogue process forward.
Akbaruddin said: "Terrorism for us is a real and present danger. The prime minister was articulating what is for us a core concern in relations with Pakistan. Mere denials of selective approaches towards terrorism is not going to drive away our concerns.
"These stem from the fact that some of the worst terrorist attacks in India owe their genesis to areas either in Pakistan control or in Pakistan," he said, and cited the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament by Pakistani militants and the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in which 10 Pakistani terrorists attacked India's commercial capital.
"The attack on our parliament, which is one of the most sacred institutions in India, and the heinous killings of Indians and 16 other nationalities in Mumbai cannot be wished away. These are matters of present and real concern to us and the prime minister was articulating our core concerns in relations with Pakistan," he said.
He said the foreign secretaries are meeting as scheduled "in the context of directions given by the prime ministers to be in touch and look at ways to take forward bilateral relations".
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