New Delhi [India], May 26 (ANI): Elevating counter-terrorism to a central baseline of their strategic alliance, the Quad nations on Tuesday explicitly focused cross-border militancy and its state financiers, alongside unveiling expansive frameworks for Indo-Pacific maritime surveillance, digital infrastructure, and provide chain safety.
The security-heavy agenda dominated the eleventh Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, hosted by EAM S Jaishankar on the historic Hyderabad House, which introduced collectively US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, and Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi to current a extremely coordinated, resilient regional structure.
Addressing a particular media briefing after the high-profile assembly right here, Additional Secretary within the Ministry of External Affairs, Nagaraj Naidu, outlined the core safety paradigms mentioned by the leaders, highlighting how the four-nation grouping is actively intensifying its collective defence frameworks in opposition to uneven threats.
The senior diplomat underscored that whereas maritime and digital connectivity stay important parameters of the alliance, the containment of transnational safety threats stays a basic precedence for the accomplice nations.
‘Counter-terrorism is a major pillar of Quad cooperation. The ministers strongly condemned terrorism in all its kinds and manifestations, together with cross-border terrorism. The joint statements particularly condemned the terrorist assault in Pahalgam in April 2025 and reiterated the necessity for decisive worldwide motion in opposition to terrorist entities and monetary sponsors,’ Naidu mentioned.
In a strong and definitive collective stance in opposition to these transnational safety threats, the Quad nations on Tuesday issued a scathing condemnation of the current main terror strikes in Jammu and Kashmir and Sydney, whereas emphatically renewing their pledge to safeguard a free and open Indo-Pacific.
The unified entrance got here to gentle by way of a joint assertion launched following the conclusion of the high-level Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting within the nationwide capital, the place the four-nation alliance made it clear that it ‘unequivocally’ condemned terrorism in all kinds, together with cross-border terrorism.
The safety declaration drew direct focus to regional vulnerabilities by explicitly referencing the April 22 terror assault in Pahalgam in Kashmir and the Bondi Beach assault in Australia in December final yr.
‘We unequivocally condemn terrorism in all its kinds and manifestations, together with cross-border terrorism and the horrific terrorist assaults perpetrated at Pahalgam in India on 22 April 2025, and Bondi Beach in Australia on 14 December 2025. We name for decisive and sustained worldwide efforts to fight terrorism in accordance with worldwide regulation, together with motion in opposition to globally proscribed terrorists and terror entities and their proxies, associates, sponsors and financiers,’ the joint assertion learn.
The complete doc underscored absolutely the necessity of orchestrating ‘decisive and sustained worldwide efforts’ in opposition to globally banned terrorists, terror teams, their associates, financiers and sponsors.
Turning their focus in the direction of fashionable warfare and safety challenges, the member states voiced deep apprehensions relating to the evolving risk matrix, the place extremist teams exploit rising applied sciences for terrorist functions. To counter this, they vowed to construct deeper operational synergies with worldwide and regional companions to strengthen counter-terrorism efforts.
‘We are dedicated to working along with our worldwide and regional companions in a complete method to strengthen their capability to forestall, detect and reply to threats posed by terrorism, violent extremists who have interaction in violent, prison, or terrorist acts, and by way of rising applied sciences for terrorist functions,’ the assertion added.
The particular incorporation of the Pahalgam terror assault stands out as some of the assertive formulations ever adopted by the grouping relating to safety threats concentrating on India. The transfer highlights New Delhi’s profitable diplomatic push to raise the problem of cross-border militancy to the forefront of premier international architectures.
Articulating India’s agency posture through the joint press interplay, EAM S Jaishankar identified that the accomplice democracies had channelled substantial focus in the direction of dismantling terror networks throughout their deliberations.
‘There have to be zero tolerance for terrorism, and nations topic to terrorist assaults have the correct to defend themselves,’ Jaishankar asserted.
Expanding their strategic oversight past counter-terrorism, the alliance re-anchored its foundational imaginative and prescient for a ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’, whereas logging sturdy opposition to any unilateral or coercive actions aimed toward altering the established order within the area.
The ministers additionally solid a pointy highlight on escalating frictions inside the South China Sea and East China Sea, particularly red-flagging hazardous maritime manoeuvres, together with blocking, ramming, and the unsafe use of water cannons.
Surveying international commerce vulnerabilities, the Quad pressured the paramount significance of sustaining the uninterrupted circulate of world commerce by the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea. In a direct warning in opposition to maritime blockades, the leaders rejected any measures inconsistent with worldwide maritime regulation, together with the imposition of tolls on delivery routes.
The ministerial declaration wrapped up by flagging rising non-traditional safety crises throughout Southeast Asia, expressing sharp concern over cybercrime, on-line rip-off centres, and transnational organised crime, whereas concurrently reinforcing their enduring backing for ASEAN centrality and regional stability initiatives.
The specific give attention to the Pahalgam terror assault remembers the profound shock of April 22, 2025, when terrorists struck the vacationer city of Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir, coming into a village and killing 26 civilians. Known as a vacationer spot with scenic magnificence, Pahalgam was rendered in blood as Pakistan-backed terrorists killed a number of harmless individuals.
In the cross-border communal assault in Pahalgam, the assailants reportedly questioned the victims about their faith earlier than killing them, leaving households grappling with loss even a yr later.
As India mourned the loss, what adopted was decisive motion by the Indian armed forces within the type of Operation Sindoor. Indian armed forces struck terror bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK).
In the aftermath of the phobia assault, India launched ‘Operation Sindoor’ on 7 May 2025, concentrating on terror infrastructure throughout Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK). According to official particulars, Indian armed forces destroyed 9 main terror launchpads linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Hizbul Mujahideen and eradicated over 100 terrorists through the operation.
What adopted had been drone assaults and shelling by Pakistan, which led to a four-day battle between the 2 neighbouring international locations. India confirmed formidable defence and performed retaliatory strikes, destroying radar installations in Lahore and radar amenities close to Gujranwala.
Inflicted with heavy harm, Pakistan’s Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) referred to as the Indian DGMO, and a ceasefire was agreed on 10 May.
Furthermore, Operation Mahadev was one other main joint success of the Army and safety forces final yr, as they tracked down and eradicated three terrorists concerned within the Pahalgam terror assault.
Among non-military actions, India terminated the Indus Waters Treaty and all bilateral commerce with Pakistan. (ANI)