UNITED NATIONS: India’s Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj said on Thursday that India did not need Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s four-point peace initiative; it only needed a single commitment: “give up terrorism”.

Because India had already submitted a detailed response to Mr Sharif’s address, Ms Swaraj devoted most of her speech at the UN General Assembly to other issues.

“Yesterday the prime minister of Pakistan proposed what he termed as a four-point new peace initiative. I would like to respond. We do not need four points, we need just one — give up terrorism and let us sit down and talk,” she said.

“This was precisely what was discussed and decided by the two prime ministers at Ufa this July. Let us hold talks at the level of NSAs on all issues connected to terrorism and an early meeting of our Directors General of Military Operations to address the situation on the border,” she added.

“If the response is serious and credible, India is prepared to address all outstanding issues through a bilateral dialogue.”

In the statement submitted earlier to the assembly in response to Mr Sharif’s speech, India rejected his four-point peace initiative and accused Pakistan of building the Chinese economic corridor on “illegally occupied” lands.

The statement also refused to back the prime minister’s appeal for moral support to Pakistan’s efforts to defeat terrorists.

“Pakistan claims to be the primary victim of terrorism. In truth, it is actually a victim of its own policies of breeding and sponsoring terrorists,” the statement claimed.

India said it had reservations about the proposed China-Pakistan Economic Corridor because “it passes through Indian territory illegally occupied by Pakistan for many years”.

Referring to the prime minister’s statement that the Kashmir issue had remained unresolved for more than half a century and that talks between India and Pakistan also failed to solve this problem, the Indian statement said: “If it is so, this is because Pakistan has chosen to disregard its commitments, whether it was under the 1972 Simla Agreement, the 2004 Joint Declaration forswearing terrorism, or more recently, the understanding between our two prime ministers at Ufa.

“On each occasion, it is India that has extended the hand of friendship. India remains open even today to engage Pakistan on outstanding issues in an atmosphere free of terrorism and violence.”

“It is not uncommon for states, when confronted with serious challenges, to shift responsibility on others. That is the case with Pakistan and terrorism,” it added.

India claimed that Pakistan was unable to recognise that this was “a home-grown problem that has begun to bite the hand that fed it”.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2015

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