Jaishankar warns G20: ‘Threatening development cannot buy peace’

At the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar delivered a blunt warning: peace cannot be built on the back of economic coercion and threatened development.

“All too often, double standards are clearly in evidence,” Jaishankar said on September 25, pointing to the United States’ 25% “Russian penalty” tariff imposed under President Donald Trump’s administration.

He cautioned that the true cost of such measures — combined with ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza — was being borne most heavily by the Global South, through spiraling energy, food, and fertilizer insecurity.

“Peace can certainly enable development,” he stressed, “but by threatening development we cannot facilitate peace. Making energy and other essentials more uncertain in an economically fragile situation helps no one. The way out is to move the needle towards dialogue and diplomacy, not towards further complications.”

Positioning India as a rare bridge-builder, Jaishankar underscored the role of countries capable of engaging both sides in conflict. “Such nations must be utilized by the international community to achieve and sustain peace,” he said, noting India’s continued engagement with both Russia and Ukraine.

Turning to terrorism, he described it as “a perennial disruptor of peace” and pressed the G20 to display “neither tolerance nor accommodation” toward it. “Those who act against terrorists on any front render a larger service to the international community as a whole,” he said.

The minister also used the platform to call for urgent reform of multilateral institutions, saying the UN system’s limitations were glaring amid mounting geopolitical and economic volatility. “As G20 members, we have a responsibility to strengthen stability and provide direction—through dialogue, diplomacy, combating terrorism, and reinforcing energy and economic security,” he asserted.

Earlier in the day, Jaishankar also highlighted a looming global workforce challenge, warning that demographic realities meant labor demands could not be met in many countries. His remarks came against the backdrop of President Trump’s hardline immigration policies, including a new $100,000 fee on H-1B visas that disproportionately impacts Indian professionals.