India had forcefully highlighted terror emanating from Pakistan at the BRICS summit in Goa
Amid criticism that India failed to obtain consensus on reference to cross-border terrorism in BRICS declaration, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday said that the threat of terror featured strongly in the just concluded BRICS Summit in Goa.
"State sponsored and state protected terrorism is the biggest challenge: BRICS Summit saw a growing recognition that there cannot be business as usual when it comes to dealing with terrorism," Sushma Swaraj said.
At the BRICS Summit, India had forcefully highlighted terror emanating from Pakistan, asserting those supporting terror networks must be made to pay the cost.
In clear reference to Pakistan, Ms Swaraj said there is a need to extract costs from those who sponsor and support terrorists and provide them sanctuary and continue to make the "false distinction" between "good and bad terrorists".
Ms Swaraj was delivering an address at the BRICS media forum.
The minister also accused Islamabad of blocking pacts with India for political reasons. "There cannot be a greater contrast with those who reject even trade and connectivity for political reasons," she said.
"Terrorism was universally recognised as a key threat to stability, progress and development. Consequently, it featured strongly in the conference narrative and its eventual outcome.
"Indeed, what we saw was not just an understanding of the dangers posed by terrorism to the economic aspirations of the world but a growing recognition that this has now become a truly global challenge that the international community can only ignore at its peril," she said.
Without naming any country, Swaraj said there has always been an overarching political context for the BRICS meetings which essentially underlines that a serious global discourse cannot be the "preserve" of a few countries with a "narrow agenda".
"There is a developing consensus that it cannot be business as usual. We must be prepared to extract costs for those who sponsor and support terrorists, who provide them sanctuary, and who, despite their own claimed victimhood, continue to make the false distinction between good and bad terrorists.
"BRICS has always been global in its approach and today, there is no bigger global challenge than state-sponsored and state-protected terrorism," she said.
Ms Swaraj said members of BIMSTEC- Bhutan, Bangladesh,
India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand - represented the "polar opposite" of a terrorism "promoting polity".
"They are focused on improving the quality of life of their people, on skills and employment, on education and health, and on the quality of governance and the deepening of democracy.
"These are nations who are actively promoting connectivity, cooperation and contacts amongst themselves. Their interface with the BRICS has a message in itself. This is that a world changing in a positive direction as reflected by the BRICS has its regional expression in a community like BIMSTEC that is able to visualize a prosperous collective future," Ms Swaraj said