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Quash terror, hold talks: Sushma tells Sharif

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Rubbishing Pakistan’s 4-point formula for peace, India on Thursday asserted that it is ready to discuss all issues if the neighbouring country addresses “just one” point of ending terrorism emanating from there as she proposed NSA-level talks to address the problem.

Responding to Pakistan’s proposal, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said, ” We don’t need four points, we need just one; give up terror and let’s sit down and talk”.

“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 while addressing the 193-member body.

This was precisely what was discussed and decided by the two Prime Ministers at Ufa this July. 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. If the response is serious and credible, India is prepared to address all outstanding issues through a bilateral dialogue”, she said.

Addressing the UN General Assembly in Hindi, Swaraj referred to the perpetrators of 26/11 attacks who continue to roam freely in Pakistan and pressed the world community to ensure that countries which provide finances, safe havens and arms to terrorists “pay a heavy price”.

A day after Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif raked up Kashmir, the Indian minister used the same forum to raise the issue of “illegal occupation of parts of the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir” by Pakistan and said terror attacks from there are engineered to legitimise it.

She made it clear that terrorism emanating from Pakistan is hampering normalisation of bilateral relations as she underlined that “talks and terror cannot go together”.

The world should have a zero tolerance for terrorism, Swaraj said, adding: “The Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism can no longer be held up. Nor can we be held hostage by seeking to define terrorism when the General Assembly in 2006 adopted the Global Counter Terrorism Strategy unanimously.”

“Member states must undertake their obligations to investigate and prosecute those who are alleged to have supported terrorism,” she said.

Swaraj on UNSC reforms

Swaraj said that in order to preserve the “centrality and legitimacy” of the UN as the custodian of global peace, security and development, the reform of the Security Council is its “most urgent and pressing need.”

“This is the need of the hour. How can we have a Security Council in 2015 which still reflects the geo-political architecture of 1945? How can we have a Security Council which still does not give place as a permanent member to Africa and Latin America?,” she questioned.

Swaraj underscored the need for including more developing nations in the decision making structures of the Security Council and to change the way it does business by doing away with outdated and non-transparent working methods.

“Imparting more legitimacy and balance to the Council would restore its credibility and equip it to confront the challenges of our times,” she siad.

“As with nations, so with institutions. It is only a periodic renovation that provides an organisation with meaning and purpose. In a world that continues to be dominated by wealthy and influential nations, the notion of sovereign equality of the UN has permitted the developing world to question some unfair norms.

“But it has not permitted a fundamental challenge to the inequity of a system built for a world that longer exists,” Swaraj said.

She voiced India’s appreciation for the leadership of former UN General Assembly President Sam Kutesa and chair of the Inter-Governmental Negotiations Courtnay Rattray for putting on table a negotiating text, a significant achievement in over two decades of discussions.

“This first, but critical step, must be the springboard for action in this historic 70th Session of the UNGA,” she said.

She said the UN has been successful in preventing a third world war, in assisting decolonisation and dismantling apartheid, in combating global epidemics and reducing global hunger, and in promoting democracy and human rights.

But at the same time it has not been able to prevent conflicts taking place in several parts of the world, she said.

“If we ask whether we were able to find permanent solution to these conflicts, the answer is no. If we ask whether we were able to show the path of peace to a world which is going on the way of violence, the answer is no.

“On these parameters, the United Nations appears as an ineffective institution in the area of international peace and security. It has failed to effectively address the new challenges to international peace and security,” she said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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