India has warned at the United Nations that it will continue to exercise its right to defend itself against terrorism, while asserting that friendship and goodwill cannot coexist with support for terror

 External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also called for accountability for state-sponsored, cross-border terrorism, safer global shipping lanes and a two-state solution to achieve lasting peace in West Asia.

India delivered a strong message against terrorism at the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar warning that New Delhi would not accept attempts to normalise terror or provide immunity to those responsible.

Although he did not name Pakistan directly, Jaishankar appeared to be responding to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s address to the UN General Assembly a day earlier. Sharif had raised the Kashmir issue, criticised India’s decision to keep the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance and credited US President Donald Trump with timely intervention during the 2025 India-Pakistan conflict.

“Yesterday, a serial practitioner of terrorism misrepresented facts before this assembly,” Jaishankar said. He added that arguments had been used to normalise terrorism and claim immunity from its consequences.

“That will not stand. Our right to defend ourselves against terrorism will be exercised,” he said.

EAM Jaishankar underlined that friendship and goodwill could not coexist with terrorism. He said understandings based on support for terrorism would naturally be called into question, adding that it was for the perpetrator of terrorism to mend its ways.

He described state-sponsored terrorism with a cross-border purpose as a direct affront to the international order. Governments involved in such practices, he said, must be held accountable.

The minister called for no dilution in the global zero-tolerance approach towards terrorism. He also stressed the need to expose and counter the financial networks that support terrorist activities.

Sharif had warned in his UN address that any attempt by India to stop, impede or divert Pakistan’s share of the Indus waters would be treated as an “act of war”. He also described the Indus river system as essential to Pakistan and argued that India’s decision to hold the treaty in abeyance had no legal basis.

India has maintained that the treaty will remain in abeyance until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably ends its support for cross-border and other forms of terrorism. Sharif also revisited the 2025 military confrontation, portraying Pakistan’s response as self-defence and calling for a “just and fair” settlement of the Kashmir issue.

Jaishankar said the international system had become increasingly strained after eight decades of the United Nations. Instead of creating an enabling environment for peace, he said, the world was witnessing the “weaponisation of everything”.

He pointed to intense competition in finance, restricted market access, disrupted supply chains and the withholding of technology. These developments, he said, had created choke points and encouraged countries to pursue de-risking and diversification.

While such measures could protect national interests to varying degrees, Jaishankar said they had weakened the broader atmosphere of trust and goodwill.

The minister also raised concerns over attacks on commercial vessels and the risks facing international shipping lanes. He noted that Indian seafarers, along with seafarers from other countries, had lost their lives in such attacks.

“This is completely unacceptable,” Jaishankar said, stressing that the safety and security of commercial shipping and seafarers must never be compromised.

On the situation in West Asia, Jaishankar said lasting peace required a two-state solution involving Israel and Palestine. He expressed India’s continued support for humanitarian assistance and relief efforts for the Palestinian people amid the conflict in Gaza.

He said tensions and violence in the region continued to be a matter of concern. India, he added, remained committed to supporting humanitarian efforts, while maintaining that a durable peace could be achieved only through a two-state framework.

The recent BRICS summit in New Delhi had also called for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

MEA