Cross-border terrorism is a major problem: Foreign Minister Jaishankar's clarification at the SAARC meeting

-SARK foreign ministers meeting amid corona virus

New Delhi Dated 25th September 2020 Friday

A meeting of SAARC foreign ministers was held on Thursday amid the Corona virus infection. The meeting was attended by the Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistan via video conference.

Indian External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar said in a tweet after the meeting that he had the opportunity to address the SAARC foreign ministers' meeting today. He said India's first commitment as a neighbor was to make South Asia organized, resilient, secure and prosperous.

He said India helped every neighbor in times of trouble. SAARC neighbors need help. It was India's policy to do so. India provided US 150 150 million to the Maldives, US 200 200 million to Bhutan and US 400 400 million to Sri Lanka this year.

At the SAARC foreign ministers' meeting, Jaishankar indirectly criticized Pakistan. He said that eradicating cross-border terrorism and removing obstacles in the way of communication and coordinating mutual trade were the three biggest challenges facing SAARC. All SAARC countries must take concerted action to meet these challenges. Only when these three challenges are met will lasting peace, prosperity and security be established in South Asia.

At this year's SAARC foreign ministers' meeting, Pakistan's foreign ministry did not put a map on the back of the meetings like last time. In the last meeting, Pakistan had a fake map in the background showing that some parts of India were its own.

Ajit Doval of the National Security Agency of India walked out, taking a hard line against the map. It may be recalled here that the map affixed by the Foreign Office of Pakistan was recently ratified by the Parliament of Pakistan.