india

Updated: Jun 27, 2020 20:35 IST

India on Saturday reacted sharply to Pakistan’s much-publicised decision to turn down New Delhi’s request to allow President Ram Nath Kovind’s plane fly over its airspace. “We call upon Pakistan to recognize the futility of such unilateral actions,” foreign ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.

Kumar was responding to queries about Pakistan’s denial of overflight permission to the special flight.

“We regret the decision of the Government of Pakistan to deny overflight clearance for the VVIP special flight which is otherwise granted routinely by any normal country,” Kumar said.

The announcement about Islamabad’s decision had been made public just a few hours earlier by Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

The foreign minister told state broadcaster PTV that Prime Minister Imran Khan had decided to reject India’s request to let President Ram Nath Kovind to use its airspace for his flight to Iceland. President Kovind leaves on a three-nation tour on Monday that will also take him to Switzerland and Slovenia. In course of his discussions, President Kovind is also expected to brief the top leadership in those countries on India’s “national concerns”, especially in view of terror incidents this year and Islamabad’s support to terror groups.

HT-MintAsia Leadership Summit l Jaishankar’s ‘no talk amid terror’ message to Pakistan

Imran Khan’s government has been under pressure from the Opposition and some ministers to restrict India to use its airspace after New Delhi revoked special status of Jammu and Kashmir and split the state into two centrally-administered union territories.

Pakistan’s leadership responded to India’s change in the constitutional status of Jammu and Kashmir by trying to internationalise the changes in Kashmir, which India has described as a purely internal matter.

“The decision has been taken in view of India’s behaviour,” Qureshi said in a statement. “The Indian President had sought permission to use Pakistan’s airspace to travel to Iceland, but we decided not to permit him,” he added.

Pakistan had fully closed its airspace in February after an Indian Air Force strike on a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror camp in Balakot. The country opened its airspace for all flights except for New Delhi, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur on March 27. On May 15, Pakistan extended its airspace ban for flights to India till May 30. It fully opened its airspace for all civilian traffic on July 16.

India has repeatedly stressed that there was no possibility of talks with Pakistan until Islamabad stops terrorist groups from using its soil to launch attacks in India. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, speaking at the HT-MintAsia Leadership Summit on Friday, reaffirmed India’s willingness to talk to Pakistan, provided it is without “having the gun of terrorism pointed at our heads”.

“In my view, there has been a consistent position that if there are issues we need to talk about, we are open to talking about it, provided that you talk like two civilised neighbours,” Jaishankar said at the summit. “That you don’t say that I will talk to you but I reserve the right to...blow up your cities.”