We expect Quad to understand our position on terror: Jaishankar

Indian Express

7 hours ago

At the first Quad foreign ministers' meeting after Operation Sindoor in May, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Tuesday that India expects its Quad partners to understand and appreciate that the country has every right to defend its people against terrorism, and it will exercise that right.
'A word about terrorism in the light of our recent experience — the world must display zero tolerance. Victims and perpetrators must never be equated. And India has every right to defend its people against terrorism, and we will exercise that right. We expect our Quad partners to
understand and appreciate that,' Jaishankar said in remarks to the media ahead of the meeting in Washington DC with his counterparts from the US, Australia and Japan.
On April 22, 26 people were killed in a terror attack in Pahalgam. On May 7, India launched Operation Sindoor, striking terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, which was followed by four days of military confrontation between India and Pakistan.
Jaishankar later described the Quad meeting as 'very productive' and said they 'discussed how to make the Quad more focused and impactful on contemporary opportunities and challenges'.
'Today's gathering will strengthen strategic stability in the Indo Pacific and keep it free and open,' he said. 'We are all committed to ensure a free and open Indo Pacific. To that end, our endeavours are devoted to promoting a rules-based international order. It is essential that nations of the Indo Pacific have the freedom of choice, so essential to make right decisions on development and security,' he said.
Jaishankar said that in the last few months, 'we have made significant progress' in Quad initiatives, including 'maritime domain, logistics, education and political coordination'. He said the Quad is about 'deepening our convergence and expanding our common ground'.
The working of the Quad is being made more efficient by streamlining the working groups, and a more cohesive, nimble and focused Quad will help deliver better, he said. He added that India plans to host the next Quad Summit.
This is Jaishankar's second Quad foreign ministers' meeting this year — the first was on January 21, a day after US President Donald Trump's inauguration in Washington DC.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Quad is a 'very important partnership that has developed over the years and… really taken wing in the last few months'. He said he was focussed on 'diversifying the global supply chain of critical minerals, not just access to the raw material, but also access to the ability to process and refine it to usable material'.
'It's critical for all technologies and for all industries across the board, and so having a diverse and reliable global supply chain is just one example of many that we can focus on and build upon,' Rubio said.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the importance of the Quad partnership 'is highlighted by the urgency of the strategic challenges that we all face'.
'Unfortunately, we meet in the backdrop of conflict and of escalating competition. So it has never been more important for us to harness collective strength, peace, for stability, for prosperity in the Indo Pacific and for all our peoples,' she said.
'The Indo Pacific region, where our four countries are located, is the growth engine of the global economy, accounting for more than half of the world's population… peace and stability of the Indo Pacific region are essential for the prosperity of international community,' Japan Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said.
Jaishankar also met Iwaya and Rubio separately for bilateral meetings.
Earlier in the day, Jaishankar called the Pahalgam attack 'an act of economic warfare'. 'It was meant to destroy tourism in Kashmir, which was the mainstay of the economy. It was also meant to provoke religious violence because people were asked to identify their faith before they were killed,' he said in an interview to Newsweek.
'So we decided that we cannot let terrorists function with impunity. The idea that they are on that side of the border, and that, therefore, sort of prevents retribution, I think, that's a proposition that needs to be challenged and that is what we did,' he said.
He said Pakistan-based terrorists carrying out attacks against India don't operate in secret. These are terror organisations which have the 'equivalent of their corporate headquarters in the populated towns of Pakistan,' he said. 'Everybody knows what is the headquarters of organisation A and organisation B and those are the buildings, the headquarters that India destroyed' in Op Sindoor, he said.
'We are very clear that there will be no impunity for terrorists, that we will not deal with them any longer as proxies and spare the government which supports and finances and, in many ways, motivates them. We will not allow nuclear blackmail to prevent us from responding,' he said.
Responding to a question on US President Donald Trump's claim that he used trade to stop the India-Pakistan conflict, and whether that has affected trade negotiations between Delhi and Washington, Jaishankar said: 'No, I don't think so. I think the trade people are doing what the trade people should be doing, which is negotiate with numbers and lines and products and do their trade-offs. I think they are very professional and very, very focused about it.'
He said there is a national consensus in India that 'our dealings with Pakistan are bilateral'. 'And in this particular case, I can tell you that I was in the room when Vice President (J D) Vance spoke to Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi on the night of May 9, saying that the Pakistanis would launch a massive assault on India if we did not accept certain things,' he said.
'And the PM was impervious to what the Pakistanis were threatening to do. On the contrary, he indicated that there would be a response from us. This was the night before, and the Pakistanis did attack us massively that night, we responded very quickly thereafter,' Jaishankar said.
'And the next morning, Mr Rubio called me up and said the Pakistanis were ready to talk. So I can only tell you from my personal experience what happened. The rest I leave to you,' he said.