VIENTIANE: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that there is “one country” in India’s neighborhood whose competitive advantage rests solely in exporting terrorism.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought a coordinated response from Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-member nations to combat menace of “export of terror” in the region in an apparent reference to Pakistan.
“Export of terror, growing radicalization and spread of extreme violence are common security threats to our societies,” the Indian premier said while addressing the 14th ASEAN-India summit in Vientiane, Laos on Thursday.
He told the East-Asian Summit that the world not only needs to target terrorists but their whole ecosystem and “our strongest action should be reserved for those state actors who employ terrorism as an instrument of state policy”.
Modi, without naming Pakistan, maintained that most of the South Asian countries are peaceful path to economic prosperity but only “one country” is “producing and exporting terrorism.
“This export is reducing space for peace & increasing space for violence, and putting at risk peace and prosperity of all,” said the Indian PM.
Terming the export of terror a common security threat to the whole region, Modi noted that growing radicalism through the ideology of hatred and spread of extreme violence were the other security threats imminent in the region, according to The Hindu.
“The threat is local, regional, and transitional at the same time. Our partnership with ASEAN seeks to craft a response through coordination, cooperation at multiple levels,” Modi said in his address to ASEAN leaders. “We are willing to take concrete steps to enhance cooperation in cyber security, de-radicalization and counterterrorism,” he added.
Relations between the arch-rivals have worsened since the killing of HuM commander Burhan Wani in a shootout in Indian-held Kashmir on July 8. Wani’s killing sparked mass protests, leaving at least 70 protesters dead and hundreds injured.
Earlier on August 12, Pakistan offered to hold discussions with India to calm unrest in Kashmir, but New Delhi turned down the offer. Modi also targeted Pakistan in his Independence Day address, saying the country would have to answer for “rights violations” in Balochistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
On September 1, army chief General Raheel Sharif told Indian prime minister and its top spy agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) that Pakistan’s borders were completely secure and that the country understood the conspiracies being hatched against it well.
