Will come back to haunt you: Jaishankar in veiled reference to Pakistan

New Delhi, Oct 12: Foreign Minister, Dr. S Jaishankar said that forces such as extremism, radicalisation and violence come back to haunt those who nurture them. The External Affairs Minister however did not name Pakistan.

He was speaking at the meeting of the foreign ministers of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Kazakhstan. While targeting China's Belt and Road Initiative he said that respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations must be at the heart of all connectivity projects.

Jaishankar also discussed terrorism as the biggest enemy of the common goal of peace and development for members of the CCICA.

"In this day and age, we cannot countenance its [terrorism's] use by one state against another. Cross-border terrorism is not statecraft; it is simply another form of terrorism," Jaishankar said.

"The international community must unite against this menace, as seriously as it does on issues like climate change and pandemics. Any calculation that extremism, radicalisation, violence, and bigotry can be used to advance interests is a very short-sighted one. Such forces will come back to haunt those who nurture them," he also said.