Jaishankar warns at UN that terrorism cannot be normalised

India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has warned the United Nations General Assembly that terrorism cannot be normalised or shielded from consequences, in a response widely directed at Pakistan. Speaking during the high-level general debate of the 81st session on Saturday, Jaishankar said a “serial practitioner of terrorism” had misrepresented facts before the assembly the previous day.

He did not name Pakistan or its Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, whose address had raised the issue of Kashmir and referred to a previous conflict with India. Jaishankar said arguments were being used to normalise terrorism and claim immunity from its consequences. He asserted that India would exercise its right to defend itself against terrorism and said friendship and goodwill could not coexist with terrorist activity.

“It is for the perpetrator of terrorism to mend its ways,” he said, according to the report. Jaishankar described terrorism as a continuing threat to peace and said attacks that were state-sponsored and conducted across borders represented a direct challenge to the international order. He called for governments engaged in such practices to be held accountable.

India, he said, supported a zero-tolerance approach and wanted the financial dimensions of terrorism exposed and countered. Sharif had used his address to credit United States President Donald Trump for what he described as timely intervention during the 2025 conflict between India and Pakistan. He also said a just and fair resolution of the Kashmir issue was necessary to prevent South Asia from reaching a similar point of conflict again.

The supplied material records the competing positions but does not include a direct response from Pakistan to Jaishankar’s remarks.