State-sponsored terror biggest challenge: India

PANAJI: In an apparent reference to Pakistan, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday said, state sponsored and state protected terrorism is the biggest challenge, the international community is facing today, reports foreign media. 

Briefing the press on the recently concluded BRICS Summit, the Union Minister asserted that terrorism is universally recognised as a key threat to peace and has become a global challenge.

“BRICS Summit saw a growing recognition that there cannot be business as usual when it comes to dealing with terrorism,” Swaraj said. In the wake of several SAARC nations coming out in support of New Delhi following the Uri attack and the subsequent cancellation of the bloc's summit in Islamabad, India on Monday said Pakistan has been isolated due to its own policies and it has nothing to do with it.

"If someone has been isolated, it is due to the country's own policies. India has had nothing to do with it," External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said at a press briefing after the 8th BRICS Summit here. However, to India's dismay, China strongly defended Islamabad, its "all-weather" friend, for making "great sacrifices in fighting terrorism".

The Chinese support to Pakistan came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, without naming Pakistan at the Goa BRICS Summit, said the "mothership" of terrorism was in India's neighbourhood.