India strongly hit back at Pakistan in the UN General Assembly on Saturday (September 26, 2026), asserting that arguments by the “serial practitioner of terrorism” to normalise the scourge and claim immunity from its consequences will not stand.
Without naming Pakistan or the address by its Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at the UN on Friday (September 25, 2026), Mr.
“Yesterday, a serial practitioner of terrorism misrepresented facts before this Assembly,” External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in his address to the General Debate at the high-level 81st session of the UN General Assembly. Jaishankar said arguments were invoked to “normalise terrorism, and claim immunity from its consequences.”
“And understandings premised on that will naturally be called into question. Mr. India called for governments indulging in such practices to be held accountable. “There must be no dilution in our zero-tolerance approach towards terrorism. Mr. Sharif had used the UN General Assembly podium to credit U.S.
“Our right to defend ourselves against terrorism will be exercised,” Mr. Jaishankar said, asserting that “friendship and goodwill cannot co-exist with terrorism”. It is for the perpetrator of terrorism to mend its ways,” he said. Jaishankar told world leaders that a persistent threat to peace has been the scourge of terrorism. “That this could be state-sponsored, with a cross-border purpose, makes it a direct affront to the global order,” he said. Its financial aspects, in particular, should be exposed and should be countered,” he said. President Donald Trump for his “timely intervention” in the 2025 conflict against India.
