Talks with Pakistan not appropriate when people are dying on the border: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj

The government has achieved 'unprecedented outreach and unparalleled outcome' at the global stage in the last four years, Sushma Swaraj said on Monday.

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Monday that there cannot be any comprehensive dialogue with Pakistan till it shuns terrorism. "We are always ready for talks with Pakistan but with a caveat that terror and talks cannot go together... there cannot be a comprehensive dialogue till Pakistan shuns terror... when people are dying on the border, talk of dialogue is not appropriate," she said.

The EAM was replying to a question on whether India-Pakistan talks can take place after the general elections there. However, she admitted that the NSAs of India and Pakistan meet to hold "talks on terror". Swaraj also hit out at Pakistan over its "Gilgit Baltistan Order 2018" relating to administrative control over Gilgit-Baltistan, saying Pakistan always "distorts history". "Pakistan tries to teach us history and geography. It is one country which does not believe in rule of law and I would just say one thing to their answer 'look who's talking', she asserted.

Watch EAM @SushmaSwaraj’s annual press conference live here. https://t.co/pxZqxLZPJn — Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) May 28, 2018

Pakistan on Monday summoned India's Deputy High Commissioner JP Singh and issued a demarche over the Indian statement that the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir, which also includes the so-called 'Gilgit-Baltistan' areas, is an integral part of India by virtue of its accession in 1947. 

Pakistan Cabinet on May 21 had approved Gilgit-Baltistan Order 2018 which was also endorsed by the Assembly for the region. The order is being seen as Pakistan's efforts towards incorporating the disputed region as its fifth province.

India on Sunday had summoned Pakistan's Deputy High Commissioner Syed Haider Shah in New Delhi and lodged a strong protest over Islamabad's latest move, saying any action to alter the status of any part of the territory under its "forcible and illegal occupation" has no legal basis. 

Further, Swaraj said that the government has achieved "unprecedented outreach and unparalleled outcome" at the global stage in the last four years. Outlining the work of the Narendra Modi-led government in its four years of rule, she said India has secured membership of three export control regimes out of four since this government came to come in 2014. The government has reached out to 186 out of 192 nations under its "unprecedented outreach and unparalleled outcomes", Swaraj said.

(With PTI inputs)