Jaishankar Slams Pakistan, Calls Out West Over Kashmir: ‘Invasion Was Made Into A Dispute’
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday called out Pakistan and some Western countries on Kashmir and said the United Nations made an “invasion into a dispute”. Jaishankar also stressed the need for international order and fairness, saying that a strong global order must have some basic consistency of standards.
“We all speak of sovereignty and territorial integrity. It’s a vital principle and a bedrock of global rules. After World War II, the longest-standing illegal presence and occupation of a territory by another country pertains to India in Kashmir,” Jaishankar said while speaking during a session at Raisina Dialogue 2025 in New Delhi.
“We went to the UN (United Nations). What was an invasion was made into a dispute. The attacker and the victim were put on par. Who were the culpable parties? UK, Canada, Belgium, Australia, USA? So pardon me, I have some question marks on that whole topic,” he continued.
“We speak today of political interference. When the West goes out into other countries, it’s in pursuance of democratic freedoms. When other countries come into the West, it seems to have a very malign intention. If we need to have an order, there must be fairness… We need a strong UN but a strong UN requires a fair UN,” the EAM said.
“A strong global order must have some basic consistency of standards. We have military coups to our east in Myanmar, they are a no, no. We have them even more regularly to the West where they seem to be okay. It’s important to audit the workings of the world for the last eight decades and be honest about it and to understand today that the balances and the shareholdings in the world have changed. We need a different conversation. We need a different order.” he said.
While speaking, Jaishankar referred to Pakistan and said a country does not need to be a big nation to pose risks to others.
“We do need an international order, just like we need a domestic order.”
“We should all understand the importance of an order. It’s not just big countries that would benefit if there is no order. I would argue that any country which will take risks and have extreme positions, which would test the system, will actually use disorder to its advantage.”
“We’ve seen in our own neighbourhood, you don’t have to be a big country to be a risky country. We have some smaller neighbours who have done a pretty good job at that,” the EAM said, in reference to Pakistan.
The three-day Raisina Dialogue – India’s flagship conference on geopolitics and geo-economics, was thrown open on Monday by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha were among those who attended the 10th edition of the conclave.
The Raisina Dialogue is being hosted by the leading think-tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF) in partnership with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
