Unswayed by India’s talking points, Quad doesn’t blame Pakistan over Pahalgam attack

KARACHI: In what is being seen as significant setback to India, the Quad alliance -- comprising the US, India, Japan and Australia -- has called for the perpetrators of the Pahalgam attack in Occupied Kashmir to be brought to justice ‘without delay’, but significantly has not named or blamed Pakistan in its joint statement.

The statement was released by the US State Department on Tuesday following a ministerial-level meeting in Washington of the Quad’s foreign ministers. While condemning terrorism, the statement did not echo India’s frequent accusations directed at Pakistan.

“The Quad unequivocally condemns all acts of terrorism and violent extremism in all its forms and manifestations, including cross-border terrorism”, the ministers said in the statement.

They further urged all UN member states to collaborate with the appropriate authorities. The statement read: “We call for the perpetrators, organizers, and financiers of this reprehensible act to be brought to justice without any delay and urge all UN Member States, in accordance with their obligations under international law and relevant UNSCRs, to cooperate actively with all relevant authorities in this regard.”

The carefully phrased statement comes amid evolving strategic dynamics in the region. As per Reuters report on the Quad statement, India is a key partner in Washington’s Indo-Pacific strategy to counter China’s influence, while Pakistan continues to be a key US ally.

Tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours had flared on May 7 and continued before a ceasefire was brokered on May 10.

US President Donald Trump first announced the ceasefire via social media, following diplomatic engagement with New Delhi and Islamabad. However, India has publicly rejected Trump’s version of events, maintaining that no external party was involved in the de-escalation.

India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar reiterated that stance on Monday in an interview with Newsweek, firmly denying President Trump’s claim. “I can tell you that I was in the room when Vice President Vance spoke to Prime Minister Modi on the night of May 9...There was no linking of trade and ceasefire”, he said.

Jaishankar went further, alleging that the US vice president had warned the Indian prime minister of an imminent Pakistani offensive. He then doubled down on India’s aggressive posture, rejecting talks with Pakistan unless confined solely to the issue of terrorism. “We are now moving to a policy of no impunity. We will not accept that the terrorists are proxies and somehow, therefore, the state is not culpable”, he asserted.

He added: “I think we will strike at terrorists. We will protect. We will exercise the right to defend our people. And I think that message has been made pretty clear.”

Speaking to reporters just ahead of the Quad meeting on Tuesday, Jaishankar insisted that India’s position should be recognised by its partners: “India has every right to defend its people against terrorism, and we will exercise that right. We expect our Quad partners to understand and appreciate that”.

During the ministerial meet, Jaishankar also reiterated the group’s collective vision for the region: “To that end, our endeavours are devoted to promoting a rules-based international order. It is essential that nations of the Indo-Pacific have the freedom of choice, so essential to make right decisions on development and security”, he said, reaffirming the group’s focus on a “free and open Indo-Pacific”.

The Quad — an informal strategic alliance originally created in 2007 and revived a decade later — has been increasingly viewed by observers as a platform to address regional security and larger geopolitical alignments.

Commenting on the Quad’s statement and Jaishankar’s remarks, Dr Rabia Akhtar, dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Lahore, observed that the Indian narrative was not fully resonating with its partners. “If it still takes an official statement by India’s Foreign Minister to convince Quad partners about India’s counterterrorism compulsions, then Ashley Tellis was right, India’s Pakistan obsession is a domestic compulsion, not a shared global concern”, she said on Wednesday.

Dr Akhtar added, “May 2025 should have clarified who provoked whom. That it didn’t says more about how unconvinced India’s partners remain of its actions than about any imagined consensus on Pakistan”.

Indian media also picked up on the nuanced language of the Quad’s statement. In a report published on Wednesday, The Wire noted that the statement “closely followed the template of the UN Security Council (UNSC)’s press statement issued in May, which had also avoided identifying the group responsible for the attack or making any direct reference to the Indian government”.

The publication pointed out that the line — “We call for the perpetrators, organisers and financiers of this reprehensible act to be brought to justice without any delay…” — was “nearly identical” to the UNSC’s May 25 statement, which Indian media had at the time alleged been shaped in part by Pakistan’s diplomatic input.

This contrasts sharply with the UNSC’s 2019 response to the Pulwama attack, which had been more explicit and aligned with Indian talking points. In contrast, the Pahalgam statement “omitted any mention of the Indian government, referring only to ‘relevant authorities’ – an approach now mirrored by the Quad”, the report said.

Adding to the contradictions, The Wire also revealed that India’s Ministry of Defence had edited its official summary of a call between Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth on Tuesday, deleting all references to “Pakistan-sponsored terrorism”. The earlier version had included pointed remarks about Pakistan, according to the publication.