Jaishankar rips into terror tolerance logic, says India won't fall for ‘nuclear blackmail'
Jaishankar said that 'we've also heard this for too long' that both India and Pakistan are nuclear countries and 'therefore the other guy will come and do horrible things, but you mustn't do anything because it gets the world worried.
"Pahalgam was an act of economic warfare. It was meant to destroy tourism in Kashmir, which was the mainstay of the economy. It was also meant to provoke religious violence because people were asked to identify their faith before they were killed," said the EAM during a conversation with Newsweek CEO Dev Pragad in New York.
"We cannot let terrorists function with impunity. The idea that they are on that side of the border, and that, therefore, sort of prevents retribution, I think, that's a proposition that needs to be challenged and that is what we did,' he added, referring to India's Operation Sindoor and counter-terrorism efforts.
The external affairs minister added that India will "no longer fall for nuclear blackmail" when it comes to combating the rise of cross-border terrorism sponsored by Pakistan.
"Now we are not going to fall for that. If he is going to come and do things, we are going to go there and also hit the people who did this. So no yielding to nuclear blackmail, no impunity to terrorists, no more free pass that they are proxies. And we will do what we have to do to defend our people,' Jaishankar said. On India-US ties
Speaking at the same event, the external affairs minister also shut down an alleged Chinese link in the ties between India and US.
Also Read: 'President Trump-PM Modi ties strong, US-India trade deal announcement soon': White House
Responding to a question which asked how much of Indo-US ties are defined by the stance on China, the union minister stated it was a "gross oversimplification" to make the ties between Delhi and Washington about China.
"I think it's a very gross oversimplification to make India-US about China. In fact, it's not just an oversimplification. I think it's even misleading at times,' Jaishankar said, adding that the ties between the two countries are about "so many other things."
'I think it's been a game-changer. It has got nothing to do with China,' he added.
Jaishankar made the remarks on Monday during a conversation with Newsweek CEO Dev Pragad at the publication's headquarters at One World Trade Centre near the 9/11 Memorial in Manhattan.
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