S Jaishankar
NEW DELHI: External affairs minister S Jaishankar Friday raised the issue of Pakistan’s support to the perpetrators of the Pahalgam terrorist attack, while highlighting the challenge that UN faces from terrorism. Speaking on United Nations Day, Jaishankar also said all was not well with the organisation as its decision-making neither reflected its membership nor addressed global priorities.Without naming Pakistan, the minister said a member of UN Security Council had openly protected the group that claimed responsibility for the April 22 attack.Pakistan is currently a non-permanent member of UNSC and had worked with China to dilute council condemnation of the attack. Islamabad also managed to omit from the statement a mention of The Resistance Front, a proxy of the Pakistan-based LeT, which twice claimed responsibility for Pahalgam.Jaishankar said few examples were more telling about the challenges facing UN than its response to terrorism. “When a sitting security council member openly protects the very organisation that claims responsibility for the barbaric terror attack such as at Pahalgam, what does it do to the credibility of multilateralism,” asked Jaishankar.He also slammed efforts to draw an equivalence between India and Pakistan after Operation Sindoor that targeted terrorist headquarters and camps in Pakistan and PoK. “Similarly, if victims and perpetrators of terrorism are equated in the name of global strategy, how much more cynical can the world get? When self-proclaimed terrorists are shielded from the sanctioning process, what does it say for the sincerity of those involved?” he said.The minister said UN debates had become increasingly polarised and any meaningful reform obstructed using the reform process itself. However, Jaishankar also stressed that commitment to multilateralism must remain strong as the world could not abandon hope. “Howsoever flawed, United Nations must be supported in this time of crisis. Our faith in international cooperation must be reiterated and indeed renewed. It is in that spirit that we all meet to mark this occasion and seek to build a better world,” he said.
