EAM Jaishankar targets PoK, terms it 'world’s longest illegal occupation’

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on March 18 called the occupation of Kashmir by Pakistan the “longest standing illegal occupation” of any territory by a different country after the Second World War.

Jaishankar made the remarks at a session on 'Thrones and Thorns: Defending the Integrity of Nations' during the Raisina Dialogue.

He also slammed the United Nations for making the Kashmir invasion a dispute and keeping the attacker and victim at par and called for a "strong and fair" UN.

"After World War II, the longest-standing illegal presence and occupation of a territory by another country pertains to India in Kashmir. We went to the UN. What was an invasion was made into a dispute. The attacker and the victim were put on par. Who were the culpable parties? UK, Canada, Belgium, Australia, USA?” he stressed.

The minister emphasized sovereignty and territorial integrity as important principles and a bedrock of global rules.

“So pardon me, I have some question marks on that whole topic... We speak today of political interference. When the West goes out into other countries, it's in pursuance of democratic freedoms. When other countries come into the West, it seems to have a very malign intention," said Jaishankar.

Calling for a strong and fair UN, EAM Jaishankar said, “So I think we need to have an order, there must be fairness. We need a strong UN, but a strong UN requires a fair UN. A strong global order must have some basic consistency of standards. We have military crews to our east in Myanmar. They are a no-no. We have them even more regularly in the west. You know where? They seem to be okay. I think it's important to audit the workings of the world for the last eight decades and be honest about it and to understand today that the balances, the shareholdings in the world have changed. We need a different conversation. We need frankly in that sense a different order.”

“We do need an international order, just like we need a domestic order. We should all understand the importance of an order. It’s not just big countries that would benefit if there is no order. I would argue that any country which will take risks and have extreme positions, which would test the system, will actually use disorder to its advantage," he said.

“We’ve seen in our own neighborhood, you don’t have to be a big country to be a risky country. We have some smaller neighbor who have done a pretty good job at that,” Jaishankar said while referring to Pakistan.

Hosted by the Observer Research Foundation in partnership with the Ministry of External Affairs, the Raisina Dialogue is being held in Delhi from March 17-19.

The event serves as a platform for high-level discussions on security, economic development, climate change, and emerging technologies, aiming to shape global governance and foster international cooperation.