(NDTV)
Pakistan did not figure in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s New Year call list as he dialled the leaders of the neighbouring countries and highlighted India’s commitment to the “Neighbourhood First” policy. In his conversation with the leaders of Bhutan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Bangladesh and Nepal, PM Modi focused on the “vision of shared peace, security, prosperity and progress for all of India’s friends and partners in the region”, the government said in a statement.
Less than a year ago, on February 14, a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed killed 40 paramilitary soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama. Days later, the Air Force carried out the strike on a Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camp in Pakistan’s Balakot, to which Pakistan retaliated, but failed to harm any Indian installations. In the months that followed, Pakistan alternated between calls for resumption of dialogue and raising Kashmir in every international forum, including the United Nations General Assembly. India reiterated its stance that talks and terror cannot go hand in hand.
