Jaishankar says terror concerns with neighbour affect India-US ties
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said that terrorism coming from India’s neighbour is one of New Delhi’s primary concerns, and if its partners do not fully understand or appreciate that, it affects bilateral ties. He made the remarks while speaking about India-US relations at a special conversation hosted by the Asia Society in New York as the high-level week of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly ended on Monday.
Jaishankar’s comments came against the backdrop of turbulence in India-US ties in recent months over tariffs, trade, Russian energy purchases by Delhi and Washington’s renewed engagement with Pakistan. Asked what would need to happen to put the relationship on a “better track”, he said India hoped ties would move forward but added that the issues before the two countries had to be addressed.
During the conversation, moderated by former American diplomat and Asia Society Policy Institute distinguished fellow Daniel Russel, Jaishankar said, “Well, I think if I stand back and look at the relationship,... I note that much of the world has had a more difficult relationship with the US. I mean that may not be a consolation, but that’s a reality.” He then referred to what he described as the sensitivities of each country, while alluding to the recent upswing in US-Pakistan ties.
Jaishankar said, “What for us in India is particularly important is the issue of terrorism. That we feel that...as a country perhaps there are very few countries which have been subjected to the kind of terrorism that we have from a neighbour as part of a deliberate, conscious policy over many, many decades.” He added, “Now, if something which matters so deeply to us, there isn’t enough understanding or appreciation or empathy of that, I think that creates a problem too. That you know if... one of my primary concerns is not fully appreciated by my partner, then clearly there is an impact of that on the relationship.”
The India-US relationship has faced strain just months into the second Donald Trump administration, with differences also linked to trade and tariffs. In May last year, India launched Operation Sindoor targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir after the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir, carried out by The Resistance Front, a proxy of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, in which 26 civilians, mostly tourists, were killed. Throughout last year and again in his address to the UN General Assembly last week, Trump claimed that he stopped the conflict between India and Pakistan, a claim India has consistently denied, saying there was no third-party intervention.
Jaishankar also spoke as Washington’s contacts with Islamabad drew attention over the past year. In June last year, after returning from the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Kananaskis, Canada, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi also attended, Trump hosted Pakistan Field Marshal Asim Munir for lunch at the White House. Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Munir later met Trump again at the White House during the UN General Assembly session in September last year, and Trump publicly praised Munir on several occasions, calling him a “Great General. Great Field Marshal, a great guy.” Closing his remarks on the bilateral relationship, Jaishankar said, “we would certainly hope for and expect the (India-US) relationship to move on an upward trajectory. But I have to be real about the issues that we confront, and to the extent we are able to move ahead on some of these issues, I think we’ll have a better relationship.”
