India starts efforts to isolate Pakistan after Pulwama attack, foreign secretary meets envoys of 25 nations
Sources said foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale has met envoys of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (P5) — US, China, Russia, the UK and France — as well as key countries in Europe and Asia.
Foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale is briefing envoys of key countries on Friday to brief them on Pakistan’s involvement in supporting terrorism.
The meeting is part of the government’s diplomatic outreach to work towards, what has been described by the government as “complete isolation” of Pakistan. Jaitley also announced that the government would also take “all possible diplomatic steps to ensure the complete isolation from international community of Pakistan”. The minister said there is incontrovertible evidence of Pakistan having a direct hand in this gruesome terrorist incident.
As the first step, finance minister Arun Jaitley announced after meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security that India is withdrawing the most favored nation trade status given to Pakistan.
Watch: Most Favoured Nation status granted to Pakistan withdrawn: Arun Jaitley
Sources said foreign secretary Gokhale has met envoys of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (P5) — US, China, Russia, the UK and France — as well as key countries in Europe and Asia. Hours earlier, he had summoned Pakistan’s high commissioner to demand that Islamabad take “verifiable’ action against terror groups.
India’s high commissioner in Pakistan Ajay Bisaria has also been called to Delhi for consultations. According to news agency ANI, he will be in Delhi late on Friday to attend meetings at the external affairs ministry on Saturday.
In its first reaction after a car bomb killed CRPF jawans in south Kashmir, India had yesterday reminded the international community about efforts to ban terror groups operating from territories controlled by Pakistan.
It had also alluded to how an attempt to designate Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar as an international terrorist is still pending.
China, a veto-wielding member of the UNSC and a close ally of Pakistan, has repeatedly foiled India’s bid to list Azhar as a global terrorist, saying there is no consensus in the top organ of the world body on this issue.