‘World on edge of abyss today, seeing weaponisation of everything’: Jaishankar at UN

External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Saturday told the UN General Assembly that the world was witnessing “a weaponisation of everything”. He said finance, market access, supply chains and technology were being used as leverage, and that developing nations were caught in a crisis of food, fuel, fertiliser and finance – with a looming El Nino expected to exacerbate this crisis.

Addressing the general debate of the Assembly’s 81st session in New York, Jaishankar said strengthening stability, security and predictability was imperative for peace, and warned that the world was “living on the edge of an abyss” under continuous threats and pressures. “All it takes is one more step to push us over,” he said. After eight decades of the UN, strengthening them “should have become our second nature”, he said. “Instead, what we are actually seeing is a weaponisation of everything...”

Resources and connectivity had become “particularly subject to leveraging”, pushing nations to focus on de-risking and diversifying, he said, without naming any country. “While this may secure their interest to varying degrees, the overall atmosphere is no longer that of trust or goodwill.”

The predicament of the Global South was “particularly acute”, Jaishankar said, describing a “4F crisis” of food, fuel, fertiliser and finance. “The combined impact of a super El Niño, compounding fertiliser shortages and now impediments to grain movements, all these are cause for alarm,” he said, adding that progress on the Sustainable Development Goals was under increasing pressure.

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“The Global South’s right to industrialise is also undermined by non-market practices and market denial.” The World Meteorological Organization forecast on September 3 that El Niño would intensify to “very strong” through February 2027. The Brics New Delhi Declaration adopted under India’s chairship on September 12 had also voiced serious concern over unilateral tariff and non-tariff measures.

The minister reserved his sharpest words for Pakistan, without naming it. A “serial practitioner of terrorism” had “misrepresented facts” before the Assembly the previous day, he said, invoking arguments “to normalise terrorism and claim immunity from its consequences”. “That will not stand. Our right to defend ourselves against terrorism will be exercised,” Jaishankar said. “Friendship and goodwill cannot coexist with terrorism. And understandings premised on that will naturally be called into question. It is for the perpetrator of terrorism to mend its ways,” he said. State-sponsored, cross-border terrorism was “a direct affront to the global order”, he said, calling for governments indulging in it to be held accountable and for terror financing to be exposed and countered.

On the conflict in the Gulf, which he said was “exacerbating an already difficult situation”, Jaishankar called the targeting of commercial shipping and seafarers in international waterways “simply unacceptable”. He urged all parties to exercise restraint, de-escalate, and ensure the protection of civilians and the uninterrupted flow of energy and commerce. Attacks on shipping had spread “from the Red Sea to the Black Sea”, he said, and Indian seafarers had lost their lives along with those of other nations. India, he said, had joined Liberia and 23 other partners in an initiative to rally global public opinion against such targeting. At least 15 Indian seafarers have been killed in West Asia and the Black Sea this year, according to government figures.

On the war in Ukraine, now in its fifth year, Jaishankar said: “As Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated, endless war must give way now to an end to war. India supports ongoing initiatives to bring peace. Even as this is underway, there is an urgent need to address the security of seafarers and supply of food grains and energy. India is prepared to do everything possible to ameliorate this situation, especially with regard to food and energy security.” US ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz acknowledged India’s efforts to secure energy and food supplies during a UN Security Council debate on Ukraine earlier in the week.

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Jaishankar reiterated India’s support for a two-state solution as the route to durable peace in West Asia, and said India was contributing to humanitarian relief for the Palestinian people.

He said the misuse of artificial intelligence was “sharpening bias and diluting mutual respect”. Pointing to the AI Impact Summit India hosted in February, he argued for “the right of each nation to shape its ecosystem with the development of its own models and deployment strategies consistent with its national goals and priorities”, and said AI would be part of India’s partnership agenda with the Global South. Setting out India’s own contribution, Jaishankar cited 600 major development projects in 78 nations, spanning infrastructure, manufacturing, agriculture, IT and capacity building. He also cited the progress of the International Solar Alliance, the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure and the Global Biofuels Alliance, and India’s role as a first responder after disasters, including the recent flash floods in Nepal.

“The post-1945 order is giving way to new realities,” he said, adding that much of the present turbulence stemmed from the difficulty of adjusting to a multipolar world, and that “the case for reformed multilateralism only gets stronger day after day”. Economic rebalancing was well under way and political rebalancing visible, he said, and cultural rebalancing “must now be taken forward”.

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“In the lawns outside this building are recorded the powerful words of Mahatma Gandhi, and that should serve as an inspiration for these times. And those words are that there is no way to peace. Peace is the way,” Jaishankar said.