Jaishankar to give strong message to Pakistan, China on terrorism at UNSC

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will deliver a strong and blunt message to both Pakistan and China on terrorism at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Thursday (15 December). The high-level briefing on counter-terrorism to be held on 15 December will give the EAM a perfect and much-needed opportunity to launch an attack on Islamabad and Beijing for “their policy” of shielding and supporting terrorists operating from territories under the control of Pakistan, sources told The Daily Guardian. He will come heavily down on the countries (read Pakistan and China) for double standard on terrorism, diplomatic sources said.

“The high-level briefing on Counter Terrorism will seek to promote consensus amongst Council Members on the broad principles of a global counter-terror architecture and aim to further build upon the Delhi Declaration adopted during the Special Meeting of the Counter-Terrorism Committee held on 28-30 October in Mumbai and New Delhi,” a statement from Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. This session will be the second of the two signature events India is hosting under its presidency of UNSC. The first session was held on 14 December on reformed multilateralism at the Security Council in New York.

Sources said that India’s Permanent Representative to UN, Ruchira Kamboj has already readied facts and real-time data on terror activities emanating from Pakistan that will be used by Jaishankar to make his points forcefully during the briefing. Worth recalling here is the fact that China has on many occasions blocked US-India joint resolution to blacklist Pakistan based terrorists at the UNSC. “EAM Jaishankar will make a veiled reference to the same, while targeting the countries (Pakistan and China) for protecting terrorists,” sources said.  

Ahead of Jaishankar’s visit to New York, a concept note was circulated by India in the U.N. Security Council, which said “the era of classifying terrorists as “bad” or “good” on the basis of “political convenience” must end immediately. This is being viewed as New Delhi setting the tone and tenor of the narrative ahead of signature events one of which will focus on terrorism. In a straight talk on terrorism, Jaishankar recently took a swipe at Pakistan and China over their position in combating terrorism. He said that terror is terror, and there must not be any double standard on this. He outlined practical steps to be taken by countries, including sharing of real-time information, to counter terrorists. This is the last month of India’s non-permanent membership of the prestigious council.