Jaishankar calls India-Pakistan ties an ‘exception,’ accuses Islamabad of decades of state-sponsored terrorism

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday said that India’s relationship with Pakistan is an “exception” among its neighbours, accusing Islamabad of openly supporting terrorism for decades.

According to a News 18 report, speaking in Luxembourg, Jaishankar said no other country in India’s neighbourhood has pursued policies comparable to Pakistan’s against a neighbouring state.

“For decades, you had these training camps, not secret training camps; they’re all in the big cities of Pakistan, very open, where the state, the military supports terrorism, and they try to normalise it as though it’s their right to do it,” he said.

The minister added that such claims no longer hold credibility.

“Nobody buys it anymore. Everybody knows that these are people who are supporting the state,” he said, calling it an “unpalatable reality” that India cannot ignore while shaping its foreign policy.

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Jaishankar said that India must engage with each neighbour based on its conduct.

“Those who are willing to work with us and be helpful, positive, we’ll have to deal with them in that way. Those who do the kind of things that Pakistan does, we’ll have to deal with it in a different way,” he said, stressing that New Delhi’s approach will remain firmly grounded in realism rather than rhetoric.

Jaishankar slams Western hypocrisy

Jaishankar also criticised what he described as Western hypocrisy in responses to Operation Sindoor, India’s military action against Pakistan in May 2025.

He said that while some Western countries expressed concern over rising tensions, their reactions were selective, driven by their own interests, and often accompanied by what he called “free advice” to India.

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Referring to international reactions during the operation, Jaishankar questioned the credibility of such concerns, suggesting that these countries should first examine violence and instability in their own regions.

“People say one thing and do another,” he was quoted as saying, noting the restraint India demonstrates in similar situations.

Jaishankar said that India must acknowledge this reality of international politics, where Western nations pursue their own priorities while commenting on others, and stressed that New Delhi should remain guided by its own policies and decisions rather than external narratives.

“Why don’t you look at your own region and ask yourself, what are the levels of violence there, how much risk have been taken, how much worry the rest of us have about what you are doing?” he said.

Operation Sindoor, conducted on May 6-7, 2025, was launched in retaliation to a terror attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 civilians.

The Indian tri-services carried out precision strikes on nine terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, reportedly eliminating more than 100 terrorists.

With inputs from agencies