Message conveyed with great clarity: Jaishankar on objective of Operation Sindoor

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said Operation Sindoor clearly signaled India's intent to act against terrorism. Backed by Quad and UNSC, the operation followed the deadly Pahalgam attack. Jaishankar also raised concerns about a US bill affecting India’s energy security.

New York/Washington: 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 UN Security Council calling for those responsible for the Pahalgam attacks to be brought to justice.

“What 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,” Jaishankar said during a press conference in Washington on Wednesday.

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“And that’s 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,” he said.

A joint statement issued by Quad Foreign Ministers — Jaishankar, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Foreign Minister of Australia Penny Wong, and Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya — 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 “strongest terms” the April 22 terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, which left 26 people dead. “We call for the perpetrators, organisers, and financiers of this reprehensible act to be brought to justice without any delay and urge all UN 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,” the joint statement said.

The UN 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).

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 “that we are very resolved today to respond to it very firmly and that we have the right to defend ourselves”. Apart from the Quad discussions, Jaishankar said he had a good bilateral meeting with Rubio and the two leaders “essentially did a stock-taking of the last six months” and the path looking ahead.

“This included a discussion on trade and investment, technology, defence and security, energy and on mobility,” he said, adding that he had separate meetings with Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth and Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

To a question on the US plan to impose a 500 per cent tariff on imports from countries buying Russian oil under a bill by Senator Lindsey Graham, Jaishankar said that any development happening in the US Congress is of interest to India “if it impacts our interest or could impact our interest”. The Indian Embassy and officials have been in touch with Graham over the issue, he said.

“I think our concerns and our interests in energy security have been made conversant to him. So we’ll then have to cross that bridge when we come to it, if we come to it,” Jaishankar said.