India sharply reacts to Pakistan’s ‘takes two to tango’ remark on relations: ‘Relevant T-word is terrorism’
In response to Pakistan's comment on relations, India highlighted terrorism as the key issue. Pakistan's foreign minister had called for mutual efforts to improve ties.
India on Friday strongly reacted to Pakistan's ‘it takes two to tango’ remark on ties between the two countries and said that the relevant ‘T’ word was terrorism.
The remark came after Pakistan emphasised that normalising relations with India required mutual willingness.
When questioned about relations with India, Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said that “it takes two to tango” and stressed the importance of mutual effort.
In response to Dar's remark, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “The relevant 'T' word there is 'terrorism' and not 'tango'...”
In another development, India trashed two recent reports published by the Washington Post — one linking New Delhi to a failed plot to impeach Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu and another on Indian agents allegedly attempting to eliminate certain terror elements in Pakistan.
The relations between the two nations have significantly deteriorated over the Kashmir issue and cross-border terrorism, following a series of terror attacks on India by Pakistan-based terrorists.
In October 2024, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar visited Pakistan to attend a conclave of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and exchanged pleasantries with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
The brief exchange took place at a dinner reception hosted by Sharif at his residence in honour of the delegates of the SCO member countries.
In nearly nine years, it was the first time India's foreign minister had travelled to Pakistan.
The last Indian foreign minister to visit Pakistan was Sushma Swaraj. She travelled to Islamabad to attend the 'Heart of Asia' conference on Afghanistan that was held from December 8-9, 2015.
A day ago, India and Pakistan exchanged a list of their nuclear installations under a bilateral pact that prohibits the two sides from attacking each other's atomic facilities, in continuing an over-three-decade practice.
The exchange of the list took place under the provisions of an agreement on the prohibition of attacks against nuclear installations and facilities, the Ministry of External Affairs said.
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