00:00Thank you so very much, Mr. Speaker. Mansoor Bhai, it's really a pleasure to be here.
00:05We have been very touched by the warm hospitality extended by the government and people of Guyana
00:11at such a busy time for you. Your 59th Independence Day is today.
00:15I must say that if you had come to India, you might not find it so convenient to receive a foreign delegation on Independence Day.
00:22So we are really touched and honored by the warmth of your welcome at this difficult and busy time.
00:30As you know, Mr. Speaker, we are proud to be associated with the celebrations of your freedom.
00:37And I was very struck when the president in his speech spoke about the importance of resisting certain kinds of assaults without fear and with determination.
00:49That's very much the spirit in which we too have come.
00:52Because our country had to face an evil, tragic assault on innocent citizens enjoying a tourist holiday in our northern territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
01:07And this was not a one-off incident, but in many ways built upon a series, decades of this kind of thing being done,
01:18in which the most notorious was the assault in 2008, which was our 9-11, as we call it, 26-11, 26 November 2008,
01:27when in Mumbai, in five locations, 170 people were mercilessly gunned down.
01:33And from then onwards, we have attempted to persuade the world that not only must we issue condolences and sympathies when people lose their lives,
01:44for which we are very grateful, but we must also take resolute action, not just against the perpetrators themselves.
01:52Very often, these perpetrators, in the case of Mumbai, all but one, were gunned down in the course of their evil actions.
01:59So not only against the perpetrators, who we must bring to justice always,
02:03but also against those who finance, sponsor, guide, arm, equip, train, and direct them to come and do this kind of awful act.
02:13And for us, therefore, we have come on this mission to seek your understanding,
02:20to address any questions or misgivings you may have,
02:23and to request that particularly now, in your own political opinion,
02:29and with the important role that Guyana is playing in the United Nations Security Council,
02:34that we hope that we can count on your understanding and sympathy in solidarity with those who,
02:41as your president said, are determined to stand up without fear and with determination.
02:47Our nation has made it very clear in recent weeks that we have had enough,
02:54that they will no longer be permitted to cross a border, kill our innocent people,
03:02and walk back without, with impunity.
03:05That is not going to be happening anymore.
03:07As far as we are concerned, we are also not going to give in to their evil designs,
03:12which include trying to disturb the peace, tranquility, and economy of Jammu and Kashmir,
03:19where tourism was a very major mainstay, and that is, at the moment, the first target,
03:24the first victim, apart from the human lives lost.
03:28Second, there was clearly an attempt, through religious profiling,
03:32to create a backlash within the rest of India against one particular community.
03:38I'm proud to say India did not fall victim to that and stayed united and rose as one,
03:46from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, north to the south, east to the west.
03:51We have stayed united and determined and resolute against the horrors of terrorism.
03:57Their third attempt, very clearly, was to somehow bring international attention
04:02to their so-called grievances, which are, in fact, the illegitimate desires
04:12of our neighbouring country to claim territory that they don't control.
04:19And let me say that this is a problem that need not exist.
04:23Many, many attempts have been made over many decades to settle this issue,
04:28because we, frankly, want to get on.
04:33We want to get on with our development, Mr. Speaker.
04:36We have had a challenge until 10, 15 years ago.
04:40There were more than a couple of hundred million people living below the poverty line.
04:44We want to bring them into decent standards of life and hope.
04:47We want to grow our economy, which, for some years now,
04:51has been the fastest-growing free-market democracy in the world.
04:55We have also got a strong technological base,
04:59which really makes us focus on the 21st century and the future,
05:03rather than being buried in the unresolved grievances of the past.
05:07But having said that, we would not have wanted this issue to come and inflict itself upon us.
05:14But now that it has done so, we have responded vigorously.
05:18And I say to you, Mr. Speaker, our thinking very simply is this.
05:23If our neighbours will leave us alone to focus on our development,
05:27to focus on our future, we will be very happy to leave them alone.
05:31We have absolutely no designs.
05:33In fact, we are what is classically called a status quo power.
05:37We'll be happy to continue with the geopolitical status quo.
05:41Unfortunately, our neighbour doesn't share that assumption.
05:44Our neighbour is a revisionist power.
05:48They want something they don't have.
05:50And if they can't claim it through conventional war,
05:52they are willing to use what's called subconventional means,
05:54namely deploying terrorist militants, infiltrating them across the border,
05:58and, frankly, making victims of people who are not expecting to fight
06:04or be caught up in a fight, who are literally just gone for a tourist vacation.
06:08This needed a response.
06:10Our government gave such a response.
06:12But it did so in a very calibrated, measured, precise manner.
06:17It wasn't interested in saying we're going to war with the whole country.
06:19We are simply going to assault specific sites that have been known and identified
06:25as belonging to housing-basic organizations that are listed by the United Nations Sanctions Committee
06:32and organizations which are on the wanted terrorist list of the U.S. government as well.
06:37And we hit them.
06:38And we hit them hard.
06:40But we were very careful to do so at night when there were no civilians likely to go about
06:44to minimize collateral damage.
06:46We were very careful to avoid any government sites, any military sites, any civilian locations.
06:52Nonetheless, Pakistan chose to respond initially with indiscriminate artillery shelling,
06:57which killed 19 civilians on our side of the border,
07:01including people in a Gurdwara, a Sikh temple, and in a Christian convent, a Carmel convent.
07:07And then, sadly, they added to this a battery of drones and missiles targeting everything
07:16from civilian airports to homes to vehicles to airfields and so on.
07:21I'm proud to say that our air defenses proved more than equal to the task.
07:25Minimal damage was done.
07:27We also responded in kind to the artillery shelling.
07:29And we also responded with strikes across the border in response to their attacks on us.
07:36So the message, again, was clear.
07:37If you attack, we will respond.
07:40If you will hold your fire, we will hold our fire, because we are not seeing our actions
07:44as the first salvo in a protracted war.
07:47This message was finally understood after 88 hours of fighting.
07:52And the Pakistani Director General of Military Operations, called his Indian counterpart,
07:58asked for the cessation of firing, to which we agreed with alacrity,
08:03because we didn't want to prolong the conflict anyway.
08:06And that's where we are.
08:08Having said that, the hunt for these killers,
08:12four of whom have been identified by name and photograph, continues.
08:16The armed forces are prepared to respond in case of any future misadventure from across the border.
08:25And the Prime Minister has declared that any act of terror,
08:28and I don't think he meant any small act of terror,
08:30but any serious act of terror will be responded to as an act of war.
08:34So these are the messages that our government has given to its neighbor
08:39and which we are conveying to the world at large.
08:42If you have questions or concerns, we're very happy to address them.
08:47But I do want to say, Mr. Speaker, that your welcome and your warmth of your reception
08:51has itself been deeply heartwarming and gratifying for all of us.
08:55We feel at home here in Guyana,
08:57and we were privileged to be part of your Independence Day celebrations.
09:00And we hope that just as you are determined to keep your country free and safe,
09:05so are we, and we look forward to your understanding and support
09:08in that endeavor in these trying times.
09:11Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
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