India Can’t Talk To Pakistan Long As It Continues To Supporting Cross-Border Terrorism: Jaishankar

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Monday in front of his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock that India can’t talk to Pakistan as long as it keeps supporting cross-border terrorism. He said that Berlin understands this.

At a joint press conference with Baerbock in Delhi, Jaishankar said that they had talked a lot about both Afghanistan and Pakistan. The talks had covered a wide range of topics.

“Concerning Pakistan, I spent some time with the minister talking about the nature of our relationships, the problem of cross-border terrorism, and the fact that we deal with any problems with Pakistan bilaterally. The biggest problem right now is that we can’t talk while there is terrorism “Jaishankar said.

He said that there was an agreement on this from the German side.

During a press conference in Germany in October with her Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Baerbock talked about how the UN might be able to help solve the Kashmir problem. This got a sharp response from New Delhi.

Days later, Philipp Ackermann, the German ambassador to India, said that Berlin hasn’t changed its mind about Kashmir and that the “bilateral path” is the best way to solve the complicated problem.

In an interview with the press before her trip to India, Baerbock said that she thinks Kashmir is a “bilateral” dispute.

“We talked for a long time about both Afghanistan and Pakistan. A lot of the talk was about Afghanistan and how we each see the situation there “Jaishankar said.

He also said that Germany agrees with what the UN Security Council Resolution 2593 says about Afghanistan, which is mostly what the rest of the world thinks.

The UNSC resolution, which was passed on August 30 of last year while India was in charge of the world body, said that Afghan land couldn’t be used to attack or threaten any country, shelter or train terrorists, or plan or pay for terrorist attacks.

Jaishankar said that both sides talked about how people in Afghanistan are doing and what can be done to help.

He said that besides Afghanistan and Pakistan, other important international issues were also brought up in the talks.

“Today, we’ve spent the morning talking about things other than our relationship, like the biggest international issues of the day,” he said.

“This included the conflict in Ukraine, what was going on in the Indo-Pacific, what was happening in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and what was happening in Iran and Syria to some degree. And really, each of us brought our own perspectives to this set of issues, and I found it very helpful and rewarding to hear your (Baerbock’s) views on many things “Jaishankar said.

On Monday morning, the German foreign minister arrived here for a two-day visit to talk about ways to increase cooperation between the two countries in areas like energy, trade, defence, security, and climate change.