SRINAGAR: Accusing the West of backing military regimes and undermining democracy in Pakistan for the past eight decades, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Friday said that recent skirmishes between India and Pakistan were not over Kashmir but in retaliation to a terrorist attack.
In an interview with an international newspaper, Jaishankar took a dig at the West’s historical stance on Pakistan, “Our borders have been violated by Pakistan in Kashmir ever since our independence in 1947. And what have we seen in the eight decades since then? That large, democratic Europe, to use your own term, has stood side by side with military dictatorships in the region.”
“No one has supported the military regime—and undermined democracy in Pakistan in so many ways—as much as the West,” he added.
Talking about the recent clashes between India and Pakistan, Jaishankar said, “It wasn’t a conflict between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. It was over a terrorist attack.”
He was referring to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, which left 26 civilians, mostly tourists, dead.
Pertinently, Jaishankar on Thursday had said, “We have had to deal with difficult neighbours—China and Pakistan. We have faced continuous terrorism from across the border. The world is only now experiencing a reality we’ve long endured.”
“India has always approached its regional challenges with a sense of realism. It has been a harsh and nasty world for us. Europeans were insulated for decades. But today, the global community is going through its own reality check,” he had said. (KNO)
