India’s minister of external affairs, S Jaishankar, stated on Sunday that the country has a strong stance against terrorism because its citizens are “big victims of terrorism”. The statements coincided with India’s recent abstention from a UN resolution that did not denounce the terror assaults carried out by Hamas in the midst of the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, which has resulted in over 9,000 deaths in the last three weeks.
“Today, a good government and strong governance stand up for its people. Just as good governance is necessary at home, right judgements are necessary abroad. We take a strong position on terrorism because we are big victims of terrorism. We will have no credibility if we say that when terrorism impacts us, it’s very serious; when it happens to somebody else, it’s not serious. We need to have a consistent position,” Jaishankar said while speaking in Bhopal.
An “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce” between Israeli forces and Hamas terrorists in Gaza was the subject of a resolution from Jordan that India chose not to vote for at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
Israeli air and military operations against Hamas in Gaza, which followed an attack on October 7 that, according to Israeli authorities, killed at least 1,400 Palestinians, have escalated the Israel-Hamas conflict. According to the health ministry in the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by Hamas, over 8,000 Palestinians have died on the opposite side.
With 120 votes in support, 14 against, and 45 abstentions—including those from Greece, Iceland, India, Panama, Lithuania, and Iceland—the motion spearheaded by Jordan was approved. The adoption took place at the UNGA’s emergency extraordinary session on the Israel-Palestine conflict, during which the assembly also made the demand that vital supplies for civilians in the war zone be continuously provided.
Yojna Patel, India’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, urged both sides to defuse the situation after expressing grave worries about the declining security and substantial loss of civilian life.
While speaking in Bhopal, Jaishankar also pointed out that every country thinks of its own interests first. “So, how do you have a government that stands for what is necessary and in the best interest of its people? A strong government and good government are two sides of one coin,” Jaishankar said, noting that in the last few decades, India’s image in the world has changed a lot.
“The way we handled the pandemic when developed nations were too stressed — as some had a totally collapsed public health response — we made ‘Made in India’…’Invent in India’ vaccine, we had a COWIN platform as well,” the EAM said.
“Similarly, every other country looks after the welfare of its people and its economic interests. The same countries in Europe that were saying don’t buy oil from Russia, they themselves took it and made a schedule that would impact their own population the least,” he explained.
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