External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Saturday turned India's National Statement at the United Nations General Assembly into a forceful counterattack on Pakistan, declaring that there could be "no dilution" of the world's zero-tolerance approach to terrorism and warning that India would exercise its right to defend itself.
Speaking in New York, Jaishankar directly responded to Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's address a day earlier, in which Sharif had criticised India over Operation Sindoor, accused New Delhi of rights abuses in Kashmir, and alleged that the BJP government had unleashed a "reign of terror" against minorities. Jaishankar dismissed the speech as an attempt by "a serial practitioner of terrorism" to misrepresent facts before the world body.
"Yesterday, a serial practitioner of terrorism misrepresented facts before this Assembly. Arguments were invoked to normalise terrorism and claim immunity from its consequences," Jaishankar said from the UN podium. The remark set the tone for a speech that was as much a defence of India's security posture as it was a broader argument about the costs of conflict in an increasingly fractured world.
"Our right to defend ourselves against terrorism will be exercised," he said, adding that governments indulging in state-sponsored terrorism with a "cross-border purpose" must be held to account. The comments came amid continuing tensions between India and Pakistan, and in the wake of Sharif's criticism of India's military and diplomatic actions.
Jaishankar also addressed Sharif's accusation that India was "weaponising water" by holding the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance. Rejecting the charge, he said, "Friendship and goodwill cannot co-exist with terrorism. Understandings premised on that will naturally be called into question." The statement underscored New Delhi's position that cross-border terrorism has consequences beyond the security domain and can affect the basis of bilateral arrangements.
Earlier in the day, Indian and Pakistani diplomats had already exchanged sharp words as India exercised its right of reply to the Pakistani prime minister's speech. The back-and-forth reflected the deepening hostility between the two neighbours at a forum that is usually used to project diplomatic restraint, even when disagreements are severe.
Beyond the India-Pakistan confrontation, Jaishankar used the UNGA platform to highlight the wider effects of wars in Ukraine and West Asia on countries far removed from the battlefields. He said nations distant from the conflicts were being "penalised for no fault of theirs," pointing to the strain on the "Four Fs" — Food, Fuel, Fertilizers and Finance.
"Those most impacted often have the least say. This Assembly must face up to the true state of affairs," he said, arguing that the global system continues to impose disproportionate burdens on the developing world. He also referred to attacks on seafarers in both conflicts, noting that 18 Indians had been among those killed. "This is completely unacceptable," he said, adding that India had joined Liberia and 23 other partners in an initiative to rally global opinion against such unwarranted targeting.
On Gaza, Jaishankar reiterated India's position that peace requires a two-state solution and said New Delhi was continuing humanitarian efforts and sending relief supplies to Palestinians. The remarks aligned with India's attempt to balance support for humanitarian relief with its broader diplomatic stance on the conflict.
Jaishankar also used the speech to argue that the world was moving toward multipolarity and that the post-1945 order would have to make way for "new realities." He called for "an intrinsically diverse world with a more democratic future" and renewed India's pitch for reformed multilateralism, including a more representative UN Security Council.
This was the sixth time Jaishankar delivered India's National Statement at the General Assembly. Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not attend this year's session, having travelled to New York to deliver the statement only twice in the past 12 years — in 2014 and 2021 — and once virtually in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Modi's absence, Jaishankar once again became the face of India's message to the world: uncompromising on terrorism, critical of global inequities, and insistent that the international order must adapt to a more plural and contested era.