External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Tuesday emphasised the need for an international order similar to a domestic one. He criticised the United Nations for turning the Kashmir invasion into a dispute, placing the attacker and the victim on the same level. Jaishankar also called for a "strong and fair" UN. During the 'Thrones and Thorns: Defending the Integrity of Nations' session at Raisina Dialogue on Tuesday, Jaishankar referred to Pakistan's occupancy of sections of Kashmir as "the longest standing illegal occupation" of land by another nation following World War II. 

"Let's give you a second example. We all speak of sovereignty and territorial integrity. All of us agree. It's a vital principle. It's a bedrock of global rules. After the Second World War, the longest-standing illegal, I would say presence, occupation of a territory by another country pertains to India, what we saw in Kashmir. Now we went to the UN, and what was an invasion was made into a dispute. So the attacker and the victim were put on par. Who were the culpable parties? UK, Canada, Belgium, Australia, USA. So, pardon me, I have some question marks on that one. Now, I can give you many more. We speak today of political interference. When the West goes out into other countries, it's apparently in the perseverance of democratic freedoms. When other countries come into the West, it seems to have a very malign intention," said Jaishankar. 

Calling for a strong and fair UN, EAM Jaishankar stated, "So I think we need to have an order, there must be fairness. We need a strong UN, but a strong UN requires a fair UN. A strong global order must have some basic consistency of standards. We have military crews to our east in Myanmar. They are a no-no. We have them even more regularly to the West. You know where? They seem to be okay. I think it's important to audit the workings of the world for the last eight decades and be honest about it and to understand today that the balances and the shareholdings in the world have changed. We need a different conversation. We need frankly in that sense a different order."

When asked about his earlier remarks, where he said, "If you don't have an order, then you are looking at a very anarchic world', Jaishankar responded, "Look, I think we do need an international order just like we need a domestic order. Just like you need a society in a country, you need an international version of that and its not just big countries that will benefit if there is no order. I would argue that any country which would take risk, which would have an extreme positions, which would test the system will actually use the disorder to its advantage. I mean we have seen in our own neighbourhood. You don't have to be a big country to be a risky country. I have smaller neighbours who have done a pretty good job. So, first of all, we should all understand the importance of an order." 

"Now, the old order, it was an order, it was a product of its times. But, why I felt its virtuals were exaggerated was I think the rule maker and rule taker had somewhat different perspective because I also said in the same interview that if you are at the receiving end of those rules or the application of those rules, we had issues and let me give you two or three practical examples. You know, if you capriciously, you know, if it suits your interests, somebody is good, not good, well, I'll make up my mind how they're going to do and you apply that order to the same country on the same issues differently," he added. "Take Afghanistan, so, the same Afghanistan, the same Taliban which was an outlier was welcomed in the Doha process, was welcomed in Oslo, apparently, at that time people were okay with it. Today again we going back saying, Taliban is doing all these not so good things. Now, if they were doing all of that. what was discussed in Oslo and Doha. You know you had a British general who described them at that time as they are country boys with their own honour code. Now, so when it suits you to deal with the Taliban, they are okay. When it is not, they are not okay. You are an extremist today, you wear a suit and tie, you are okay. You know, I think I have a problem with that all," Jaishankar said.

The EAM referred to territorial integrity and sovereignty as the "bedrock of global rules." In his speech on political meddling, he added that the West's incursions into other countries are "apparently in the perseverance of democratic freedoms." But when other countries enter the West, he said, it seems to be with a "very malign intention." Slovakia's Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, and Liechtenstein's Foreign Minister Dominique Hasler, along with Dubai Abulhoul, founder of the Fiker Institute, participated in a session with India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar. The Raisina Dialogue, India's leading conference on geopolitics and geoeconomics, is taking place in Delhi from March 17 to 19. It is organised by the Observer Research Foundation in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs and focuses on addressing key global challenges.