Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said ‘Brand Pakistan’ “really identifies with global terror” as every major terrorist incident in the world has a “Pakistani footprint” around it. Jaitley, leading the Indian delegation to the IMF and World Bank meetings in Washington, also said Pakistan has a “very low credibility” in terms of the way it addresses matters involving terrorism. He said that the pull out by a number of nations out of the 19th SAARC Summit, which was scheduled to take place in Islamabad, show Pakistan is being isolated in the region. He told a TV channel that all contrarian noises that they make that Pakistan is a victim et cetera, clearly has established that the world is not willing to listen to them because of a very low credibility and a low track record as far as these matters are concerned.

Jaitley said that Defence will always remain a top priority as far as expenditure is concerned because national security and sovereignty are paramount as far as India is concerned. He also termed the surgical strikes on terror launchpads across the Line of Control (LoC) as “army strategy” and “pre-emptive strike against terrorism”. He said that all opposition leaders were briefed and consensus was build because India was “entitled to strategise” following the Uri and Pathankot terror attacks. He had earlier said that any economic effect arising from recent tensions with Pakistan and incidents like the surgical strikes will be “extremely marginal”.