Entire neighbourhood, minus one, has been a good story for regional cooperation: Jaishankar's dig at Pakistan

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Taking a dig at Pakistan, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday said the entire neighbourhood, minus one, has been a fairly good story for regional cooperation. 

"I would say the entire neighbourhood, minus one, had actually been a fairly good story of regional cooperation," Jaishankar said in reference to Pakistan.

Responding to a question at a session of the World Economic Forum here, Jaishankar also said that the Kashmir issue did come up in meetings with the US.

Jaishankar, had earlier, said India cannot talk to a very challenging neighbour that conducts terrorism as a "legitimate tool of statecraft" to put pressure on New Delhi to come to the negotiating table.

Addressing an event at leading think tank Council on Foreign Relations in September, Jaishankar was asked about Kashmir and how he looks to manage New Delhi's relationship with Islamabad.

"Well you used two keywords and I would like to begin by differentiating that. One was Kashmir and other was Pakistan. And I'll tell you why I do that. I don't think that the fundamental issue between India and Pakistan is Kashmir. I think it's part of the issues between us," he said.

Jaishankar said the issue for India was not whether it talks to Pakistan, but how it can talk to a country that is conducting terrorism. "Of course everyone wants to talk to their neighbour. The issue is, how do I talk to a country that is conducting terrorism and which frankly I would say follows a policy of implausible deniability," he said.

"They do it, they kind of pretend they don't do it. They know that that pretence is not serious, but yet they do it. So, how do you address that and I think it's a huge challenge for us," he added.

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