No Tolerance for Terrorism, No Room for Nuclear Blackmail: Indian FM Jaishankar at UN

In a sharp address at the United Nations, External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar on Monday urged the international community to unite against terrorism in all forms, warning against impunity, state sponsorship, and nuclear blackmail. 

He was speaking at the inauguration of the exhibition “The Human Cost of Terrorism” at the UN headquarters. The External Affairs Minister underscored India’s zero-tolerance approach in the wake of the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack.

Image Source: MEA/FM on X

Without naming Pakistan, Jaishankar made it clear that terror proxies and state-backed extremism must be called out and confronted. 

“Any state sponsorship must be exposed and countered,” he said, referencing India’s swift retaliation under Operation Sindoor that targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir two weeks after the Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians.

The exhibition opened a day ahead of Pakistan assuming the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council. It showcases the global trail of destruction left by terrorism — from the 1993 Mumbai bombings to the 2008 Mumbai attacks and Pahalgam 2025 — while naming entities, many of them based in Pakistan, linked to these atrocities.

Jaishankar thanked the UN Security Council for its “strong condemnation” of the Pahalgam killings, calling it a reaffirmation of the global resolve against terror. “Terrorism anywhere is a threat to peace everywhere,” he said. 

“No impunity to terrorists, no treating them as proxies, and no yielding to nuclear blackmail — these are basic principles the world must stand by.”

Calling terrorism one of the “gravest threats to humanity,” Jaishankar said the exhibition was a reminder of the “human cost” and urged world leaders not only to remember the victims but to act decisively in defence of global peace and security.

He added that when terrorism is supported by a state and fuelled by extremism, it disrupts societies and corrodes the international rules-based order. “This is not just India’s issue. It’s a global one.”