Terror & talks can't go together: Sushma Swaraj

There cannot be dialogue with Pakistan till it shuns terrorism, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Monday. "Talks and terror cannot go together," Swaraj said, while addressing media on the completion of four years of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.

While responding to a question in the backdrop of Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa favouring talks, Swaraj asserted that talks were not appropriate while people are dying on the border. "We never said we aren't ready for talks, but there is a caveat. Terror and talks cannot go together," she said. The minister emphasised that India has not completely shut doors, as talks between border guards, coast guards, director generals of military operations and national security advisors are still happening.

She also rejected claims that India has lost its friend Russia and China was continuing with offensive posturing. "There has been no change in the Doklam situation," she said, adding that the new mechanism of informal summits with Germany, China and Russia yielded good results.

On Iran, she said India India abides by sanctions imposed by the United Nations and not those imposed by any other country.

Sharing how Prime Minister Narendra Modi retorted to his British counterpart Theresa May on Vijay Mallya's extradition case. "Prime Minister Modi told British Prime Minister during the meeting of Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) that UK courts asking about the condition of Indian jails is not right, as these are the same prisons where they had jailed our leaders like Gandhi and Nehru," she said. Mallya had complained to the UK courts about the conditions of Indian jails as an argument to stop his extradition.

Swaraj took strong exception to Congress spokesperson, saying foreign policy was being formulated by the PMO and that the External Affairs Minister (EAM) is left only with Twitter. "I don't sleep and neither let the ambassadors sleep," Swaraj said, adding that these (Opposition members) will come to know the significance of Twitter, when any of their kin lands in a problem aboard. Currently, 11.7 million people follow Swaraj on the micro-blogging site.

She described the last 48 months since the NDA assumed office, a period of unprecedented outreach, where out of total 192 countries, 186 have been covered by ministerial visits. By mixing diplomacy with development, she said the outreach has resulted into foreign direct investment (FDI) worth Rs 14 lakh crore. She said there have been several countries where an Indian Prime Minister, Vice-President or President visited for the first time. Swaraj also claimed that the number of passport centres had increased from 77 to 227, which is three times in four years. Further, 90,000 people from Indian community have been rescued from various places.

She also refuted the claim that devotees at Kailash Mansarovar were not being allowed to take a "holy" dip in the Mansarovar Lake. "This isn't the situation. There is always a designated place where you can take a bath, you cannot take a dip just anywhere in the river," Swaraj said.