 "Sushma Swaraj")
Rejecting Nawaz Sharif's four-point formula for peace, India today said Pakistan needs to address "just one" issue - that of ending cross-border terror for dialogue to start on all outstanding matters.
Addressing the UN General Assembly, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj also raised the issue of 26/11 attacks masterminds roaming freely as also the "illegal occupation" of parts of Jammu and Kashmir by Pakistan, a day after Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif raked up the Kashmir issue here.
Asserting that "none of us can accept that terrorism is a legitimate instrument of statecraft," she pressed the world community to show zero tolerance towards it and ensure that countries which provide finances, safe havens and arms to terrorists "pay a heavy price" for it.
"Talks and terror cannot go together", she said while making it clear that India "remains open to dialogue" but terrorism emanating from Pakistan is hampering normalisation of bilateral relations.
"Yesterday the Prime Minister of Pakistan proposed what he termed as a four-point new peace initiative. I would like to respond. We do not need four points, we need just one - give up terrorism and let us sit down and talk," Swaraj said in her 25-minute speech before the 193-member body.
She said the Prime Ministers of the two countries had decided precisely the same during the last meeting in Ufa in Russia in July.
Sharif had yesterday mooted a four-point "peace initiative" with India -- demilitarisation of Kashmir, "unconditional and mutual withdrawal" of forces from Siachen, restraint by both countries from "use or the threat of use of force under any circumstances" and formalisation of the 2003 border ceasefire.
"Let us hold talks at the level of NSAs on all issues connected to terrorism and an early meeting of our Directors General of Military Operations to address the situation on the border," she said, adding "If the response is serious and credible, India is prepared to address all outstanding issues through a bilateral dialogue."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sharif, during a meeting in Ufa in July, had agreed to hold NSA-level talks to discuss terror but these were cancelled at the last minute in August when Pakistan insisted on changing the agenda.
