Jaishankar Calls Terrorism A Persistent Threat To Global Development At G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meet

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Thursday highlighted terrorism as a sustained obstacle to global development, emphasising that the international community must show neither tolerance nor accommodation to such activities.

Addressing the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting, Jaishankar said those who act against terrorism “on any front render a larger service to the international community as a whole,” reported PTI. He noted that in recent years, both international peace and global development have deteriorated in parallel.

“A persistent threat to development is that perennial disruptor of peace, is terrorism,” he said. “It is imperative that the world display neither tolerance nor accommodation to terrorist activities.”

Jaishankar underlined the visible limitations of multilateralism and the United Nations in addressing conflicts, economic pressures, and terrorism. “The need for reforming multilateralism has never been greater,” he said, noting that the international situation is both politically and economically volatile.

He said that G20 members have a particular responsibility to strengthen global stability through dialogue and diplomacy, firm measures against terrorism, and greater energy and economic security. “We as members of G20 have a particular responsibility to strengthen its stability and give it a more positive direction that is best done by undertaking dialogue and diplomacy, by firmly combating terrorism, and by appreciating the need for stronger energy and economic security,” Jaishankar added.

Speaking on ongoing conflicts, he referenced Ukraine and Gaza, saying they have demonstrated the costs of conflict, especially for the Global South, in terms of energy, food, and fertiliser security. “Apart from jeopardising supplies and logistics, access and cost themselves became pressure points on nations. Double standards are clearly in evidence,” he said.

Jaishankar stressed that while peace enables development, threatening development cannot facilitate peace. He warned that creating uncertainty in energy and other essential supplies in an economically fragile situation benefits no one and called for advancing dialogue and diplomacy rather than further complications.

He added that countries capable of engaging both sides in conflict can be leveraged by the international community to achieve and maintain peace. “So even as we attempt to address complex threats to peace, the value of encouraging a buy-in from those supportive of such goals should be appreciated,” he said, reported PTI.

(With inputs from PTI)