US must respect India's right to defend itself and keep zero tolerance towards terrorism: former Secretary of State
The United States must respect India's right to defend itself and maintain a zero-tolerance policy towards terrorism, former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Saturday, describing Washington's ties with New Delhi and Islamabad as fundamentally different. He was speaking at a summit in New Delhi in conversation with Jawed Ashraf, chairman of the India Trade Promotion Organisation.
Calling India a global force, he said the relationship and shared interests between Washington and New Delhi are really global in nature. The US relationship with Pakistan, by contrast, is regional, he said, though there will still be important areas - counter-terrorism, for example - where the two need to work together. A zero-tolerance policy on terrorism, he added, means having respect for India's right to defend itself.
Blinken said the US approach must include support for India's efforts to respond to attacks, as well as diplomatic efforts to prevent an escalation between New Delhi and Islamabad, two nuclear-armed neighbours - efforts that matter given the destructive potential of the weapons both countries possess. Reflecting on Washington's past engagement with Islamabad, he said US strategic interests during the Cold War and the war in Afghanistan may have led successive administrations to be less critical of Pakistan's civil-military establishment, and there is certainly an opportunity for the United States to do more.
From estrangement to a strategic partnership
On India-US relations, he described the transformation over past decades as a shift from estrangement to a genuine and, in some ways, unique partnership built on a convergence of strategic interests and profound people-to-people connections. He identified cooperation in emerging technologies - space, quantum technology and artificial intelligence - as the next important step for the two countries.
On India's relations with Russia, he acknowledged the partnership's historical depth and said Washington does not expect New Delhi to sever those ties. There will be places where the two countries do not share the same perspectives, he said, but on Russia the US understands the deep history between India and Russia and does not want it ended.
Blinken, who served as the 71st US Secretary of State from 2021 to 2025 under President Joe Biden, said the world is at a profound inflection point, citing rapid technological change, inequality and shifting power. The speed and profundity of change, he said, is beyond anything seen in his lifetime: the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT took one month to reach 50 million users, compared with 75 years for the telephone. The private sector increasingly drives technological change while governments struggle to keep pace, he said, and growing inequalities have fuelled a sense among younger people that they are being left out and left behind.
He warned that the US risks weakening its strength by damaging cooperation between the government, universities and research institutions, and by becoming less welcoming to skilled people from abroad - the biggest danger, in his words, being a huge self-inflicted wound.
On US domestic politics, he said the recent mid-term results went beyond the usual setback for a sitting President's party, attributing the outcome partly to frustration over the cost of living and concerns about corruption. In the November 3 midterm elections, the Democratic Party won majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, shifting control of the US Congress away from the Republicans.
Iran, Hormuz and the wider West Asia conflict
Blinken described the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran, launched in February by President Donald Trump, as a war of choice, and said the first Trump administration's withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear agreement with Tehran had contributed to the crisis. That agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), had required Iran to ship out 97 percent of its enriched uranium, placed limits on its centrifuges and allowed extensive inspections. After the US withdrawal in 2018, Iran accelerated its nuclear programme, he added, saying the ongoing military action would not resolve the issue.
"It is very hard to try to force this Iranian regime to capitulate; it is possible to get it to negotiate. And these are very different things," he said. He called for an off-ramp to the conflict, warning that escalation could involve attacks on regional infrastructure, US bases and partner countries.
The Strait of Hormuz, he said, had become a major challenge for global energy supplies after not being a problem before the war. Since February, Iran has repeatedly restricted access to the narrow chokepoint, one of the world's busiest oil shipping channels.
On the wider West Asia conflict, Blinken said a lasting settlement requires resolving the Palestinian question and establishing a sovereign Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel. There are seven million Jews in Israel and seven million Arabs and Palestinians between Israel proper, the West Bank and Gaza, he said, and no one is going anywhere despite what extremists on both sides would like to see happen. The solution remains, he said he fully believes, even though it is not a popular view - a secure Israel and a sovereign state of Palestine.