In a veiled criticism of Pakistan’s demand for a dialogue with India without addressing the core issue of cross-border terrorism, Minister of State MJ Akbar said that when countries seek peace talks, they may actually not mean having a peaceful situation.
“When anyone asks for peace talks, it does not necessarily mean that that country is asking for peace. And one has to measure that difference very carefully,” Akbar said at the launch of a journal on international affairs — India and the World.
“Do you want peace or do you want peace talks as an excuse for a position that may be hypocriticalIJ And our reaction will be based on the larger assessment of what you mean,” said the Minister.
Describing terrorism as the single most important threat to the world, Akbar stressed that India will continue to fight and defeat terrorism and terrorists’ designs “to split pluralistic societies that have achieved internal cohesion and peace through suspicion and fear.”
In his address on “Indian Diplomacy@2020: Power of India,” Akbar provided a big-picture view of India’s foreign policy priorities and underlined that the diplomatic drive under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been geared towards placing “India and Indians first” in the country’s multi-faceted diplomatic outreach.
“When we discuss Indian diplomacy, Indians come first and diplomacy comes later. It is India First and it is Indians First, therefore, what serves the national interest takes priority. National interest takes precedence both in the day-to-day tactical challenges or in the strategic sphere,” Akbar said.
Ahead of the third anniversary of the NDA government, the minister struck an upbeat note saying that in the last three years, with the impetus given by PM Modi, India has expanded the horizon of its engagement very vastly with the world and those parts of the world which were off the radar have been brought in.