JAISHANKAR HITS OUT AT PAK

NEWDELHI:EXTERNAL affairs minister S Jaishankar on Friday said India’s entire neighbourhood “minus one” has been a “fairly good story” for regional cooperation.

The nullification of Article 370 did come up for discussion in his meetings during the recent US visit, Jaishankar added at a session of the India Economic Summit here. “That is natural for many people when there is a change of status...,” he said during a conversation with World Economic Forum president Borge Brende.

Discussing India’s push for strengthening of ties with its neighbours, he said, “I would say the entire neighbourhood, minus one, has actually been a fairly good story of regional cooperation.” On the impasse with ‘minus one’, he said he hopes that someday even the ‘minus one’ comes around to cooperation. “I’m not unrealistic, I know we have big challenges. They (Pakistan) have a mindset issue that they have to overcome,” Jaishankar said.

decisions without touching the annual intake. H-1B seemed to have gone off the agenda — until now.

Jaishankar also focused on the welfare of Indian students, an issue that received a lot of attention some months ago when hundreds of them were left facing deportation for enrolling into a fake university launched by the department of homeland security to catch what they described as “pay-to-stay” scamsters.

The people familiar with Jaishankar’s discussions said no specific cases were discussed. But the University of Farmington case has annoyed Indian officials, who have argued this was a case of entrapment.