India has defended Operation Sindoor by pointing to the Security Council’s stance on holding the Pahalgam attack’s sponsors responsible and asserting that those who enable cross-border terrorism must pay a “serious cost.”
The unanimous April 25 Security Council statement that emphasized “the need to hold perpetrators, organisers, financiers, and sponsors” of the Pahalgam incident accountable served as the foundation for New Delhi’s start of Operation Sindoor, India’s Permanent Representative P Harish said on Tuesday.
“It was focused, measured, and non-escalatory in nature,” he stated of Operation Sindoor, which targeted terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
Harish cautioned that terrorism could alter the character of global wars.
He claimed that the nature of conflicts has changed due to the rise of non-state actors, who are frequently used as stand-ins by state actors, as well as the cross-border financing, arms trafficking, terrorist training, and dissemination of extreme ideologies made possible by contemporary digital and communication technologies.
Earlier, Kashmir and India’s abeyance of the Indus Water Treaty was brought up by Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister, Muhammad Ishaq Dar, who chaired the Council’s open discussion.
India has rejected Pakistan’s backdoor attempt to include third parties in the debate, which it named “Multilateralism and Peaceful Settlement of Disputes” while serving as the Council’s president this month.
He declared, “Pakistan continues to firmly believe in the potential and strength of multilateralism.”
The Council, he added, has failed to follow through on its resolution on Kashmir and “selective implementation of Council resolutions, double standards, and the politicisation of humanitarian principles have eroded its credibility and effectiveness”.
Pakistan must first remove its citizens and military from Kashmir and cease providing aid to those engaged in conflict there, according to 1948’s Resolution 47 on the subject.
While Kashmiris have taken part in elections reaffirming their ties to India in regions not under its control, Islamabad breaches the resolution it frequently invokes by sustaining its occupation and aiding terrorism, rendering it moot.
The procedures described in Chapter VI of the UN Charter on the pacific settlement of disputes “remain underutilised or selectively applied,” according to Dar.
But Harish pointed out that Chapter VI “begins by a recognition that it is the ‘parties to a dispute’ who must first of all seek a solution by peaceful means of their own choice”.
“Efforts to achieve peaceful resolution of conflicts must be centered on national ownership and the consent of parties,” he continued.
Additionally, Harish reminded the Council that the “growing doubts about the multilateral system, especially the United Nations,” necessitate an immediate change.
“It is imperative that the significant doubts regarding the UN Security Council’s representativeness be addressed immediately,” he stated.
“India is proud to have facilitated the inclusion of African Union in the G-20 platform during its presidency,” he said, referring to the process of increasing the representation of significant international organizations.
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