New York - Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had extended a hand of friendship to Pakistan, but this was not reciprocated by the neighbouring country. She also described Pakistan as “the greatest exporter of havoc, death and inhumanity”.
Addressing the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly, Swaraj said that while India is engaged in fighting poverty, Pakistan “seems only engaged in fighting us”.
In 2015, then Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif had called for a renewed dialogue, but “he must answer why that proposal withered, because Pakistan is responsible for aborting that peace process”, she claimed.
Swaraj called terrorism “an existential danger to humanity”. “If Pakistan stops funding terror, the world will get rid of terrorism, and its own citizens will also benefit,” she said.
Sushma took a swipe at Pakistan, telling the United Nations that its neighbour had given the world "terrorists" while India was producing top-notch doctors and engineers. "We produced scholars, doctors, engineers. What have you produced? You have produced terrorists," she said.
Swaraj offered a response to an address earlier in the week by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi who at the UN podium accused India of "massive and indiscriminate force" in Kashmir.
She also urged Islamabad to “look within” to realise why India was an IT superpower today, whereas Pakistan was recognised as the “pre-eminent export factory of terror”, despite the countries becoming independent around the same time.
Relations between India and Pakistan have been tense in recent times, mainly over Kashmir, which is divided but claimed by both countries in full.
The two nuclear-armed nations have fought three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947, two of them over the disputed Himalayan territory.
Following Abbasi's speech on Thursday, an Indian diplomat took to the floor of the General Assembly in a reply and branded the country "Terroristan".
India accuses Islamabad of training, arming and infiltrating militants into Kashmir, a claim that Pakistan has denied.
On Friday, the Pakistani military said six people were killed and over two dozen wounded in firing by Indian troops near the Kashmir border.
Addressing the General Assembly, Sushma Swaraj also reiterated India’s commitment to the 2015 Paris climate accord. She said that the recent hurricanes in the United States and the Caribbean Sea were not a mere coincidence, but a warning to world leaders before the UN General Assembly gathering.
Swaraj urged the developed world to support other countries through technology transfer and Green Climate Financing. She also called for “early reforms” in the United Nations Security Council and said it was an essential element to reform the international organisation itself.