Jaishankar tells UN that terrorism supporters must face accountability
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has said governments that support or facilitate terrorism must be held accountable, while defending India’s right to respond to attacks. Addressing the UN General Assembly, he also backed a two-state solution for West Asia and highlighted food, fuel, fertiliser and finance pressures facing the Global South.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has reiterated India’s zero-tolerance position on terrorism, telling the United Nations General Assembly that governments supporting or facilitating terrorist activity must be held accountable. He also called for terrorism’s financial networks to be exposed and dismantled.
Speaking in New York on Saturday, Jaishankar said there could be no dilution in the international fight against terrorism. He asserted India’s right to defend itself against terrorist attacks and said those responsible for supporting such activity should face consequences. Without naming Pakistan in the cited portion of his address, Jaishankar referred to comments made before the Assembly on Friday by what he called a “serial practitioner of terrorism”.
He said attempts to normalise terrorism or seek immunity from its consequences would not stand. His comments came amid continuing tensions between India and Pakistan over cross-border terrorism. India has accused Pakistan of supporting militant groups and has described its response to the April 22, 2025, attack in Pahalgam as an exercise of self-defence.
The attack killed 26 civilians, mostly tourists. India later launched Operation Sindoor against what its government described as terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Jaishankar said friendship and goodwill could not coexist with terrorism used as an instrument.
He added that understandings based on such relationships would naturally come under question and said the perpetrator had to change its conduct. On West Asia, he reiterated India’s support for a negotiated two-state solution and said India was contributing humanitarian assistance and relief for Palestinians. Jaishankar also highlighted what he called a “4F crisis” affecting the Global South: food, fuel, fertiliser and finance.
He linked food-security concerns to a super El Nino and fertiliser shortages, and said progress on the Sustainable Development Goals and the Global South’s right to industrialise were facing pressure.
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