India used its Right of Reply at the UN to rebut Pakistan on Kashmir and security. The response underscored New Delhi’s stance on terrorism, deterrence and state accountability.
India on Friday used its Right of Reply at the UN General Assembly’s First Committee to hit out at Pakistan, saying nuclear weapons must not be treated as “routine instruments of statecraft” and asserting that New Delhi will “not bow” to nuclear blackmail. Responding after Pakistan raised Jammu and Kashmir during the plenary meeting on Disarmament and International Security, India said its capabilities are defensive and shaped by its security environment.
Delivering India’s response, Anmol Sher Singh Bedi, Senior Adviser (Disarmament) at the Permanent Mission of India to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, said Jammu and Kashmir is an integral and inalienable part of India. He also said India does not seek conflict, but warned that a lack of accountability for reckless actions keeps fuelling crises in the region.
“We call for India’s illegally occupied territories to be vacated and returned,” Bedi said. “India has always stood for peace and continues to seek peace with one and with all. However, if there is no accountability for reckless actions, then peace rarely becomes a pause between crises,” he said.
He said India’s capabilities are “defensive in nature” and are not directed against any state. “We heard concerns about escalation. These are legitimate concerns. However, these are best judged by conduct over time. Nuclear weapons must not be treated as routine instruments of statecraft,” he said. “A posture that relies on nuclear overhang to limit the consequences of subconventional activity raises the risk of escalation and not the prospect of restraint,” Bedi added.
Referring to Pakistan’s approach, Bedi said crises in the region have often followed a “recurring pattern: first, provocation; second, denial of responsibility; and third, appeals for restraint once a response has been made”. He added, “Where those in power are neither elected by people nor accountable to them, their decisions carry no risk and impose no cost for those who take them. That is how crisis becomes an instrument of power. That is how instability becomes useful, and that is how the cycle keeps on repeating.”
“The use of force by states under the garb of non-state actors does not erase the state’s responsibility. India’s right of self-defence remains intact,” he said. Bedi said India has drawn three clear lines: “First, any terrorist attack against India will receive a fitting response. Second, India will not bow to nuclear blackmail. Third, India will make no distinction between those who sponsor terrorism and those who mastermind it.”
He told the committee that India’s actions in May last year followed a “grave provocation” after the Pahalgam terror attack, in which 26 civilians were killed. “These actions were measured, targeted, and designed to be non-escalatory,” he said. In May last year, India launched Operation Sindoor targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the April 22 attack in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir, which was carried out by The Resistance Front, a proxy of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, and killed 26 civilians, most of them tourists.
On the Indus Waters Treaty, Bedi said the agreement rested on good faith and goodwill when it was signed. “A state cannot undermine those foundations of trust and cooperation and at the same time insist that the privileges flowing from the relationship remain untouched,” he said. After the Pahalgam attack, India said the treaty would be held in abeyance until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably ends its support for cross-border terrorism and other forms of terrorism.
On proliferation, Bedi referred to the history of the AQ Khan network, saying it had contributed to the adoption of Security Council Resolution 1540 nearly two decades ago. He said this remained relevant amid demands for unquestioned nuclear cooperation and the transfer of advanced weapons and military capabilities. “We urge all states and all responsible suppliers to exercise the highest degree of vigilance, not because of India, but for their own security,” he said. In its response at the UN, India said peace remains its position, but made clear that it will respond to terrorism, reject nuclear blackmail and hold states responsible for backing non-state actors.
With PTI Inputs
