Solution to Korean Peninsula must address India’s concerns: Swaraj to BRICS

Since the 1970s, Pakistan and North Korea have cooperated extensively on the development of ballistic missile and nuclear weapons technologies, according to defence analysts and media reports.

Any solution to the Korean Peninsula issue must address India’s concerns about the nuclear proliferation linkages in its neighbourhood, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has said, in a veiled reference to Pakistan.

In her address to the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting here Thursday, Swaraj said India has been consistently supporting the efforts to bring about peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula.

“We have been consistently supportive of efforts to bring about peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula,” she said in the meeting held on the margins of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly.

“We believe that any solution to the issue of Korean Peninsula must address concerns about the proliferation linkages with India’s neighbourhood,” Ms. Swaraj said, in an apparent reference to Pakistan which has close defence ties with North Korea.

Since the 1970s, Pakistan and North Korea have cooperated extensively on the development of ballistic missile and nuclear weapons technologies, according to defence analysts and media reports.

She said the world today was characterised by chronic armed-conflicts in different parts of the world, especially in West Asia.

These conflicts are of intra-state nature with the proliferation of non-state actors and terrorist-networks with global reach, she added.

Conflicts in Syria, Libya, Iraq and Yemen pose security challenges for the region and for global peace, Ms. Swaraj said while expressing deep concern with continuing tensions on the border between Gaza Strip and Israel.

Ms. Swaraj said India had recently considerably increased to $5 million its contribution to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

“India firmly believes that the dialogue and country-led processes are the only viable options to effectively address the issues in that region,” she added.