Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had started a culture of goodwill and dialogue with Pakistan, but India was now closing the doors of cooperation as there is uncertainty in Pakistan’s sincerity in tackling the issue of terrorism.
“Prime Minister Modi opened a window of opportunities when he visited Pakistan and met Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. I think that window is slowly closing. Before it closes, Pakistan needs to develop trust with India on its sincerity in dealing with terrorism,” he said.
Parrikar alleged Pakistan was following the policy of dividing ‘good and bad’ terrorists. They are targeting the bad ones but the good ones are backed to operate in Afghanistan and India. I think this needs to be tackled at a diplomatic level, he said.
The minister expressed these views at Shangri-La Dialogue, an inter-governmental security forum in Singapore. The comment from the Indian minister was followed by a tweet from the opposition party BJP’s General Secretary Ram Madhav supporting his stance.
Despite a phone conversation between PM Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif ahead of the latter’s heart surgery, ties between India and Pakistan have cooled in recent weeks over the probe into the terrorist strike on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot in January.
