EAM raises terror concerns amid India-US trade strains
Union Minister for External Affairs S Jaishankar has said India’s relationships with its partners, including the US, could be affected if New Delhi’s concerns over cross-border terrorism are not adequately understood.
Speaking at an Asia Society event in New York alongside former US diplomat Daniel Russel, Jaishankar said India-US relations had encountered several challenges, including prolonged trade negotiations, uncertainty surrounding US tariffs and differences over India’s concerns about terrorism linked to Pakistan.
“For us in India, what is particularly important is the issue of terrorism,” he said, arguing that India had experienced a sustained form of terrorism from a neighbouring country that New Delhi considers deliberate and State-supported.
“If something which matters so deeply to us, there isn’t enough understanding or appreciation or empathy of that, I think that creates a problem too,” Jaishankar said.
He added that when a partner country does not fully appreciate one of India’s primary concerns, it can have an effect on the broader relationship.
The comments come as New Delhi and Washington continue to work through trade-related differences while managing wider disagreements over tariffs and their respective approaches to relations with other major powers.
He explained that India’s large agricultural sector, small producers and manufacturing base made trade negotiations particularly complicated because any agreement had to take into account a wide range of domestic interests.
According to Jaishankar, there is now broadly an understanding on the trade agreement, although uncertainty remains over changes in the US tariff regime. He referred to developments following the US reciprocal-tariff measures and said a new process under Section 301 was still evolving.
Jaishankar also discussed India’s approach to maintaining relationships with multiple countries, describing the international system as increasingly multipolar.
He recalled an earlier period when some voices in Washington argued that India should limit its strategic options and place greater emphasis on its relationship with the US. According to Jaishankar, that approach has changed as countries increasingly engage with several major powers simultaneously.
He pointed to Washington’s relationships with China, Russia, Ukraine, Europe and countries across Asia as examples of this broader diplomatic approach.
Jaishankar said India had long pursued a similar strategy, maintaining relationships with different countries while protecting its own strategic interests.
Jaishankar’s comments followed his criticism of Pakistan during the United Nations General Assembly’s high-level session in New York.
Without naming Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Jaishankar accused Pakistan of misrepresenting facts at the UN and described Islamabad as a “serial practitioner of terrorism”.
He said India would continue to exercise its right to defend itself against terrorism and argued that friendship and goodwill could not coexist with terrorism.
Sharif had referred in his UN address to the four-day military confrontation between India and Pakistan in May 2025, which followed India’s Operation Sindoor. He invoked Pakistan’s right to self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter and credited US President Donald Trump with intervening during the confrontation.
India has maintained that the ceasefire that ended the May 2025 hostilities resulted from direct communication between New Delhi and Islamabad and was not the product of third-party mediation.
Jaishankar also highlighted the growing influence of public opinion on foreign policy in the era of social media.
He said diplomacy was no longer conducted exclusively by governments, political leaders, ministers and diplomats. Public reactions and wider societal engagement, he noted, now play a greater role in shaping the environment in which foreign policy is pursued.
