Menon went on to say, “we in India have directly suffered the consequences of the linkages and relationships among terrorist organisations, support structures and funding mechanisms, centred upon our immediate neighbourhood, and transcending national borders”.
He was speaking to top diplomats and strategic experts here at a day-long foreign policy dialogue, organised by India, with the influential International Institute of Strategic Studies.
Menon says India is feeling the results of neighbour’s ‘collapsed state structures, absent writ of state, emergence of multiple power centres’
By Iftikhar Gilani
NEW DELHI: Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon on Thursday indirectly lashed out at Pakistan for hurting India by supporting and funding terrorist organisations that transcend national borders.
He did not name Pakistan as such, leading to speculation that he may be accusing Bangladesh and Nepal as well with his reference to “our immediate neighbourhood,” but he left no doubts by specifically referring to “large areas abutting India to the west” –clearly referring to Pakistan.
“Large areas abutting India to the west have seen the collapse of state structures and the absence of governance or the writ of the state, with the emergence of multiple centres of power,” he said. “The results, in the form of terrorism, extremism and radicalism, are felt by us in India.”
Menon went on to say, “we in India have directly suffered the consequences of the linkages and relationships among terrorist organisations, support structures and funding mechanisms, centred upon our immediate neighbourhood, and transcending national borders”.
He was speaking to top diplomats and strategic experts here at a day-long foreign policy dialogue, organised by India, with the influential International Institute of Strategic Studies.
Menon went on to make a further dig at Islamabad hobnobbing with terrorist outfits, stressing that “any compromise with such forces, howsoever pragmatic or opportune it might appear momentarily, only encourages the forces responsible for terrorism”.
He said international terrorism remained “a major threat to peace and stability,” and dwelt upon the changing strategic shape of the world, and how Indian foreign policy was centred on the transformation of India.
He underscored India’s emergence as a global force and its increasing integration into a rapidly globalising world. “Our engagement with the global economy is growing rapidly, with trade in goods and services now exceeding $330 billion. Our needs from the world have changed, as has our capability. As a result of 25 years of six percent growth, and our reforms since 1991, India is in a position today to engage with the world in an unprecedented manner.”
