India on Tuesday said it was still in a state of shock over ceasefire violations by Pakistan in which five of its soldiers were killed and that peace must return on the border for any bilateral talks. Amid a spike in tensions at the Line of Control(LoC) and the border in Jammu and Kashmir, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid also said the priority today is that the ceasefire violations must stop, noting there was a sense of disappointment in India over the recent Pakistani actions.
He said that "air needs to clear" before India can give its response to holding of talks with Pakistan. "Air needs to get clear before we start giving clear responses to many things that were half done and in the pipeline," he added. "It is not possible to respond to something given in the atmosphere today. There is a sense of disappointment. We have lost our men on the border, we are still in a state of shock and grieving," he told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Delhi.
Khurshid said the priority today was that ceasefire violations must stop. "The priority today is that first ceasefire violations must stop. It is important that we get peace and tranquillity on the Line of Control (LoC) and border, it is the highest priority. There are steps that need to be taken from the other side, the Pakistani side, before we can start addressing these issues," he said, when asked about the prospects of holding talks with Pakistan.
There has been escalation in border tension due to firing and ceasefire violations by Pakistan, especially after the killing of five Indian soldiers along the LoC in Poonch district nearly a week ago. Earlier, while delivering the CUTS 30th Anniversary Lecture on 'India's Economic Integration with Asia', Khurshid said that India needs to have cognitive and accommodative conversation with China.
"The conversation should be in a voice which has strength, effectiveness, confidence and belief and not a meek voice. The conversation should be accommodative from time to time with domestic need," he said. The Minister said that India and China would work together one day but not today, as "it's too early".
He said India was already exploring in South China sea where it had commercial contracts with Vietnam and other countries of the region. "We are not involved in a dispute in South China Sea. We believe that it should be settled bilaterally between countries which have different points of view. It should be done peacefully and within the four corners of the code of conduct that ASEAN is developing for South China sea," he said.
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