Indian External Affairs Minister (EAM), S. Jaishankar, is on his three-day maiden visit to Austria, which concluded on 3rd Jan 2022. He held several meetings on regional and global issues of mutual interest with Austria’s Foreign Minister, Alexander Schallenberg. It was the first EAM-level visit from India to Austria in the last 27 years.
On January 2, 2022, in an interview with Austria’s ZIB2 podcast, a popular magazine of ORF television, Jaishankar, was questioned over using non-diplomatic language towards Pakistan.
“Before you said, you are a diplomat but several weeks ago, you called Pakistan, your neighbour, the epicentre of terrorism. This doesn’t sound very diplomatic, does it?” the interviewer asked.
Jaishankar gave a fiery response by stating, “I did it again today without using the word Pakistan…because you are a diplomat, doesn’t mean you are untruthful. I could use much harsher words than epicentre, so believe me, considering what has been happening to us, I think epicentre is a very diplomatic word.”
The Mumbai terror attack in 2008 and the Indian Parliament attack in 2001 were both planned and carried out by terrorists from Pakistan, according to S Jaishankar, who also outlined how they attempt to infiltrate Indian territory every day.
When the anchor continued by emphasizing that Pakistan is not a nation that fosters terrorism, Jaishankar replied, “If you control your sovereign space which I believe they do. If terrorist operations are operating in broad daylight with recruitment and financing, then can you really tell me that Pakistani state doesn’t know whats going on? Especially when they are being trained in military-level, combat tactics.”
Furthermore, he criticized the European countries for not condemning Pakistan. “When we speak about judgments and principles, why don’t I hear sharp Europe condemnation of these practices that have been going on for decades”, he added.
When asked about the possibility of a war in the near future between Pakistan and India, he stated that “the world should be more concerned about terrorism.”
Lastly, he took offence to the contextualization of the sensitive situation and slammed the journalist for defending and “giving a free pass to Pakistan” on the issue of terrorism. In response to this, the journalist, changed the topic.
