New York: Hitting out at Pakistan, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said India cannot talk to a very challenging neighbour that conducts terrorism as a "legitimate tool of statecraft" to put pressure on New Delhi to come to the negotiating table. Addressing an event at leading think tank Council on Foreign Relations here on Wednesday, Jaishankar was asked about Kashmir and how he looks to manage New Delhi's relationship with Islamabad.

"Of course everyone wants to talk to their neighbour. The issue is, how do I talk to a country that is conducting terrorism and which frankly I would say follows a policy of implausible deniability," he said. "They do it, they kind of pretend they don't do it. They know that that pretense is not serious, but yet they do it. So, how do you address that and I think it's a huge challenge for us," he added.