External affairs minister S Jaishankar has reiterated India's support for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, saying lasting peace in West Asia requires the establishment of separate Israeli and Palestinian states.
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday, Jaishankar said, “We strongly believe that a durable and lasting peace requires a two-state solution.”
He also highlighted India's humanitarian assistance to Palestinians amid the ongoing conflict, saying New Delhi was contributing to relief efforts for the Palestinian people.
India's position comes as the international community continues to discuss ways of establishing a political settlement to the conflict. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said earlier this week that the two-state solution remains the credible path to lasting peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians, based on the pre-1967 lines and relevant UN resolutions.
India outlines its support for Palestine
New Delhi has consistently backed the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. The Ministry of External Affairs has previously described India's preferred outcome as a “sovereign, independent and viable State of Palestine within secure and recognised borders, living side by side in peace with Israel”.
India also backed Palestine's membership of the United Nations last year while condemning the October 7, 2023 terrorist attacks on Israel and the loss of civilian lives during the subsequent Israel-Hamas conflict.
According to the government, India has provided around 70 MT of humanitarian assistance to Palestinians since the conflict began, including 16.5 MT of medicines and medical supplies sent in two consignments in October and November 2023.
New Delhi also sent 65 MT of medicines to the UN Relief and Works Agency and the Palestine Ministry of Health in October and November 2024. Over the past five years, India has completed development projects worth $26 million in Palestine.
India's position was also reiterated at the UN General Assembly last year. In July, India's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish, said there was no substitute for a two-state settlement and called for concrete measures to make it possible.
“Reaffirmation of support must take the form of actionable steps that pave the way for the two-state solution,” Harish said, calling for collective attention to identifying and implementing such measures.
Jaishankar calls for an end to ongoing conflicts
Jaishankar's UN address extended beyond the Israel-Palestine conflict, with the minister calling for an end to wars and urging countries to move towards resolving conflicts.
“Endless war must now give way to an end to conflict,” he said.
He expressed concern over continuing hostilities in the Gulf and described the situation in Ukraine as “equally troubling”. He also warned that the consequences of conflicts were increasingly being felt beyond the countries directly involved.
The minister separately raised concerns over attacks on commercial shipping and seafarers travelling through international waterways, describing such attacks as “simply unacceptable”. The issue has particular significance for India amid continuing disruption and insecurity around key maritime routes.
India has previously called for the protection of commercial shipping and civilian crews, including through its Group of Friends on Safety and Security of Shipping and Seafarers initiative at the United Nations.
Jaishankar takes aim at Pakistan over terrorism
The external affairs minister also criticised Pakistan during his UN address without naming the country or Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Referring to a “serial practitioner of terrorism”, Jaishankar said attempts to normalise terrorism and claim immunity from its consequences would not stand.
“Yesterday, a serial practitioner of terrorism misrepresented facts before this Assembly,” he said, in an apparent reference to Sharif's UN address on Friday, during which the Pakistan prime minister raised the Kashmir issue.
Jaishankar said arguments were being made to “normalise terrorism, and claim immunity from its consequences”.
His remarks came amid a broader emphasis in his address on accountability for terrorism and the right of countries to defend themselves against cross-border attacks.
The latest UN debate on the two-state solution comes as international pressure for a political pathway has intensified. UN officials have continued to describe the creation of two independent states living side by side in peace and security as the basis for a lasting settlement, while warning that developments on the ground are making such an outcome increasingly difficult to achieve.