As Poland courts Pakistan, India advises zero tolerance for terror | India News

NEW DELHI: Amid Poland’s efforts to step up ties with Pakistan, external affairs minister S Jaishankar told his visiting Polish counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski that Poland should display zero-tolerance for terrorism instead of fuelling the terrorist infrastructure in India’s neighbourhood.Warsaw has been looking to expand its trade, defence and energy ties with Pakistan and Sikorski visited Islamabad in Oct last year to further scale up bilateral cooperation. Jaishankar told him he was no stranger to this part of the world and was also familiar with the longstanding challenge of cross-border terrorism. “Poland should display zero-tolerance for terrorism and not help fuel the terrorist infrastructure in our neighbourhood,” he said.The meeting also saw India’s discord with Europe on the Russia-Ukraine war spill out in the open as Jaishankar stressed that selective targeting of India on the Ukraine issue is unfair and unjustified. If Sikorski, who is also deputy prime minister, thought he could duck the issue by pretending Jaishankar might have been talking about Trump tariffs, the Indian minister retorted that the selective targeting was not limited to tariffs.“I think there have been other forms of selective targeting. But we will discuss that,” Jaishankar said after Sikorski brought up the unfairness of selective targeting through tariffs.Poland is among the European countries that have not refrained from hectoring India on its position on the Ukraine war and trade relations with Russia. India has responded by calling out the “double standards” of these countries saying the European Union itself has continued to trade with Russia in not just energy but also fertilisers and other commodities. “In the recent past, both in New York last Sept and in Paris this Jan, I have candidly shared with you our views on the Ukraine conflict and its implications. While doing so, I have also repeatedly underlined that the selective targeting of India is both unfair and unjustified. I do so again today,” Jaishankar said in his opening remarks. On Sunday, the Polish leader had in Jaipur attacked Russian President Vladimir Putin saying Russia cannot be trusted.