
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar speaks to the press, in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday (July 2, 2025).
| Photo Credit: ANI
Operation Sindoor conveyed to the world with great clarity that India will act against terrorism, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said in a statement in line with the U.N. Security Council calling for those responsible for the Pahalgam attacks to be brought to justice.
âWhat is important for us in the Quad statement, as also the statement that the Security Council had issued on April 25, is that the perpetrators of terrorism must be held accountable. They must be brought to justice,â Mr. Jaishankar said during a press conference in Washington on Wednesday (July 2, 2025).

âAnd thatâs important because we then have to communicate to the world what we did. On May 7, the objective of Operation Sindoor is that if there are terrorist attacks, we will act against the perpetrators, the supporters, the financiers, and the enablers. So that message, I think, was conveyed with great clarity,â he said.
A joint statement issued by Quad Foreign Ministersâ Jaishankar, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Foreign Minister of Australia Penny Wong, and Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwayaâ unequivocally condemned all acts of terrorism and violent extremism in all their forms and manifestations, including cross-border terrorism.
The Quad Foreign Ministers condemned in the âstrongest termsâ the April 22 terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, which left 26 people dead.
âWe call for the perpetrators, organisers, and financiers of this reprehensible act to be brought to justice without any delay and urge all U.N. member states, in accordance with their obligations under international law and relevant UNSCRs (UN Security Council resolutions), to cooperate actively with all relevant authorities in this regard,â the joint statement said.
The U.N. Security Council press statement condemned the Pahalgam attack, with members of the Security Council underlining the need to hold perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of this reprehensible act of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice.
The council members stressed that those responsible for these killings should be held accountable.
India had launched Operation Sindoor targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the Pahalgam attack, whose responsibility was claimed by The Resistance Front (TRF), a front for Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
Mr. Jaishankar said he shared with his counterparts, in the Quad as well as globally, the nature of the terrorism challenge that India faces and has confronted over multiple decades, and âthat we are very resolved today to respond to it very firmly and that we have the right to defend ourselvesâ.
Apart from the Quad discussions, Mr. Jaishankar said he had a good bilateral meeting with Rubio and the two leaders âessentially did a stock-taking of the last six monthsâ and the path looking ahead.
âThis included a discussion on trade and investment, technology, defence and security, energy and on mobility,â he said, adding that he had separate meetings with Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth and Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
To a question on the U.S. plan to impose a 500% tariff on imports from countries buying Russian oil under a bill by Senator Lindsey Graham, Jaishankar said that any development happening in the U.S. Congress is of interest to India âif it impacts our interest or could impact our interestâ.
The Indian Embassy and officials have been in touch with Graham over the issue, he said.
âI think our concerns and our interests in energy security have been made conversant to him. So weâll then have to cross that bridge when we come to it, if we come to it,â Mr. Jaishankar said.
Published â July 03, 2025 09:31 am IST