Talks with Pak possible if terror stops: Sushma

NEW DELHI: We never shied away from dialogue. We are willing to talk, but with the caveat that terror and talks cannot go together.

SUSHMA SWARAJ, foreign minister

India was ready for a dialogue with Pakistan but for that terror would have to stop, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said on Tuesday, rounding up for media New Delhi’s foreign policy initiatives of the last one year.

Last month’s informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping in Wuhan had boosted ties and put two leaders at ease with each other, Swaraj said at an annual press conference.

“Today the ease is such that President Xi has said that whenever you think there is something going against you, pick up the phone and talk to me directly. And PM Modi said if you want to know my opinion about any sub- ject, pick up the phone and talk to me. So this informal summit has established this ease,” she said.

The status quo at Doklam, the tri-junction along India’s eastern border with China, was being maintained, the minister said.

The standoff had turned ties frosty between two Asian two economic giants. Wuhan was the latest in a string of measure taken by the two sides to thaw the chill.

Addressing question on Pakistan, Swaraj said, “We never shied away from dialogue. We are willing to have a dialogue, but with the caveat that terror and talks cannot go together. This has always been always our position.” She was also critical of Pakistan’s move giving the federal government a larger say in GilgitBaltistan, a move seen as Islamabad’s effort to incorporate the disputed region as its fifth province.