Raisina Dialogue: Jaishankar targets Pakistan, says 'world’s longest illegal occupation is in Kashmir'

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar with US DNI Tulsi Gabbard

During a session at Raisina Dialogue 2025, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday said the longest-standing illegal presence and occupation of a territory by another country pertains to India in Kashmir.

The minister said sovereignty and territorial integrity is a vital principle and a bedrock of global rules. "After World War II, the longest-standing illegal presence and occupation of a territory by another country pertains to India in Kashmir. We went to the UN. What was an invasion was made into a dispute. The attacker and the victim were put on par. Who were the culpable parties? UK, Canada, Belgium, Australia, USA? So pardon me, I have some question marks on that whole topic... We speak today of political interference. When the West goes out into other countries, it's in pursuance of democratic freedoms. When other countries come into the West, it seems to have a very malign intention," said Jaishankar.

#WATCH | Raisina Dialogue 2025 | Delhi: At the 'Thrones and Thorns: Defending the Integrity of Nations' session, EAM Dr S Jaishankar says, "We all speak of sovereignty and territorial integrity. It's a vital principle and a bedrock of global rules. After World War II, the pic.twitter.com/1iygclSxqu

ANI (@ANI) March 18, 2025

According to Jaishankar, there must be fairness to have an order.  "If we need to have an order, there must be fairness... We need a strong UN but a strong UN requires a fair UN... A strong global order must have some basic consistency of standards. We have military coups to our east in Myanmar, they are a no, no. We have them even more regularly to the West where they seem to be okay. It's important to audit the workings of the world for the last eight decades and be honest about it and to understand today that the balances and the shareholdings in the world have changed. We need a different conversation. We need a different order..." he said.

Referring to Pakistan, Jaishankar said a country does not need to be a big nation to pose risks to others. “We do need an international order, just like we need a domestic order. We should all understand the importance of an order. It’s not just big countries that would benefit if there is no order. I would argue that any country which will take risks and have extreme positions, which would test the system, will actually use disorder to its advantage," he said.  “We’ve seen in our own neighbourhood, you don’t have to be a big country to be a risky country. We have some smaller neighbours who have done a pretty good job at that."