Ready for talks, but it can't happen with terror: Sushma Swaraj's stern warning to Pakistan

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday lashed out at Pakistan saying that dialogue will not take place with the nation if they do not curb terror.

She was making the speech to commemorate the fourth year of the Ministry of External Affairs.

During her speech, Swaraj spoke of India’s global outreach in the past four years. “90,000 people from the Indian community have been rescued from various places. In his visits to many countries, PM Modi has saved many people from severe punishments. Today, Indians living overseas are living peacefully,” she said.

She also expressed surprise that there were so many countries that previous leaders didn’t visit. “When we formed our govt, we thought that we will cover all the 192 countries present at the UN, for ministerial level talks. And, we have covered 186 countries already,” she added.

While taking specific questions on Pakistan, Swaraj said that India was ready to talk on condition that Pakistan would end its state-sponsored terror.  “Terror and talks cannot go together, but talks on terror should be held,” she said.

She said that when she met former Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif, he had a four-point formula to end terror. “I told Nawaz saab that one formula was needed: get rid of terror,” she said.

Lashing out at Pakistan’s ability to distort history, she said, “The answer we got in response of what happened with Gilgit Baltistan Order 2018. was laughabale. They tried to teach us history. Pakistan always distorts history & doesn't believe in law. Only thing thing I felt while reading their answer was, 'look who's talking'.”

While speaking on North Korea, Swaraj said General VK Singh’s visit to that country was the aftermath of her meeting a North Korean official in Baku, Azerbaijan. “He had requested that an Indian official come to Pyongyang, so as soon as I returned, I directed General VK Singh to do the same,” she said.

While speaking on China, Swaraj added that the stand-off following Doklam was status quo. She also addressed the situation of someone who was denied taking a dip at the Mansarovar river, which falls in China. "I got a tweet from someone who was visiting Mansarovar that they were not being allowed to take holy dip in the Mansarovar jheel. This wasn't the situation. There is always a designated place where you can take a bath, you cannot take dip just anywhere in the river," she said.

She said that India was not taking sides in the dialogue between the United States and North Korea. “We are keeping our embassy there in case the US wants a US-friendly nation to hold talks with Pyongyang with,” she added.

On the US imposing sanctions on Iran, Swaraj said that India was following UN sanctions and not country-specific sanctions.

Congress's allegations that our relations with Russia have deteriorated, are far from truth, only recently PM Modi and President Putin held a successful informal summit, she added. She further said she didn't rest, jokingly saying, I don't sleep and neither do my ambassadors