Elusive global unity against terrorism

India unites against terror, when will the world?

The ‘Operation Sindoor’ has shown us how deeply fragmented the fight against terror has become.

There is a widely held conviction among all major powers that Pakistan is indeed harbouring terrorists and terror groups on its soil and using them as strategic assets against India, just as it had once used the earlier avatar of Taliban. They do not need more convincing. However, while there was widespread condemnation of the terror attack in Pahalgam, no country has called out Pakistan or even asked it to cooperate with apprehending the perpetrators. This is where facts diverge from reality.

Before ‘Operation Sindoor’ was launched, all that the European Union (EU) did was to call the “rising tensions between India and Pakistan” “alarming” and advise India that “escalation helps no one.” It was obvious that rather than taking a stand of zero tolerance to the menace, the EU continued to see terror attacks through a politically frosted glass – the frost that set in due to India’s stand on the Ukraine war. The EU, which was peeved over India’s abstentions on the UN votes on Ukraine, saw this as an opportunity to pay back in the same coin. However, what they have conveniently forgotten is that when China aggressed our borders in Galwan, all the European Council President could say in front of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was: “The relationship between the EU and China is complex. We need to tackle different issues and topics...We support all the efforts to maintain a channel of dialogue to find peaceful solutions.” Thank you, EU, for this candid admission.

In fact, when an important member of the EU called India in February 2021 to express its indignation at India’s stand in the UN Security Council on the Ukraine vote, India asked them politely to send us a copy of their statement issued when the Galwan clashes happened. There was silence at the other end, since it had issued none. Sometimes it is easy for the EU to forget that international relations did not start with the Ukraine war.

The United States have, however, been more forthright on terrorism, though all their actions have to meet the touchstone of domestic acclaim in the US. President Donald Trump’s administration has jettisoned the narrow internal focus of Joe Biden’s administration on REMVE, or racially and ethnically motivated violent extremism. The recent post of FBI Director Kash Patel on X, calling out a “Pakistani citizen” being extradited to the US for “support to ISIS and attempting to commit acts of terrorism”, signalled a robust anti-terror policy. The extradition of 26/11 plotter Tahawwur Rana from the US to India is a welcome development. However, the US has also found a sudden bonhomie with Pakistan, calling them “a phenomenal partner” in combating terror. Consequently, while pursuing zero tolerance to terror, the US does not discriminate between whom it is willing to work with as long as its ends are met. This explains its embrace of former Al-Qaeda leader and current President of Syria, Al Shaara, and a separate deal with the Houthis for stopping attacks on American shipping.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), on the other hand, are now focusing narrowly on terror since the main ambition of most of its members, especially of the Gulf countries, is to break the shackles of their history of support to Islamic radicalism, spawning terrorists and terror groups around the world. Their desire for regional stability and integration with the ‘outside’ world has made them lukewarm to the Palestine issue and developments in Gaza, the West Bank and the Middle East. India should not expect much from them vis-a-vis Pakistan’s terrorist misadventures either. The Saudi minister’s shuttle diplomacy immediately after the Pahalgam attack was similar to the one it undertook after the Pulwama attack, ironically by the same minister, and yielded the same results – nothing. The litmus test will come next month when Pakistan takes over the presidency of the UN Security Council. We will see how the OIC countries in the Council – and there are five of them – treat the issue of terrorism and whether they will use Islamophobia to dilute the fight against terror. How the US and the UK react will be the other litmus test.

the fight against terror in Africa has been orphaned. The Global Terrorism Index 2025 points out that the Sahel is now the epicentre of terrorism, accounting for over half of all terrorism deaths in the world. But the outside world has no time since it is not affecting them directly. It is a dismal commentary on our collective fight against terror.

The inference is simple and, of course, has been self-evident for a long time. Each state will react as per its own geopolitical and other compulsions, especially when it affects it directly. This was how it was before 9/11 happened – the era of “your terrorist” and “my terrorist”. That era is returning. The fragmentation of this fight against terror is worse than ever before. In this scenario, Pakistan is not going to stop with the Pahalgam attack unless it knows that the price it will have to pay for sponsoring terrorism will be unacceptably high. It should be India’s endeavour to ensure that this happens, if Pakistan is to be deterred.

That is why it is even more necessary now for India to take the lead and sustain the high level of engagement to put forward our narrative and call out those responsible. This engagement should also extend to our neighbours. If sending multi-party delegations to neighbours proves to be sensitive, the foreign secretary can visit our neighbours, who are equally susceptible to being influenced by the Pakistani narrative, with Islamic radicals raising their heads again in some neighbouring countries. This will adversely impact our ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy.

(The writer is a former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of India to the UN in New York. He chaired the UN Security Council's Counter-terrorism Committee.)