The QUAD’s foreign ministers’ annual meeting happened on July 1 in Washington DC. It was attended by the Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio; the Foreign Minister of Australia, Hon Penny Wong; the External Affairs Minister of India, S. Jaishankar; and the Foreign Minister of Japan, Takeshi Iwaya.
In its joint statement, the Quadrilateral alliance released a strong message against the perpetrators of the Pahalgam attack that killed 25 Indians and one Nepali citizen and urged the UN members to cooperate for its investigation.
“The Quad unequivocally condemns all acts of terrorism and violent extremism in all its forms and manifestations, including cross-border terrorism, and renews our commitment to counterterrorism cooperation,” said the joint statement.
It comes as a strong message, though not directly against Pakistan and China–Pakistan because India blames it for abetting the attack and China because it supports and promotes Pakistan’s narrative. In the past few years China has repeatedly blocked India-US joint attempts at designating Pakistan-based terrorists as global terrorists. After Operation Sindoor, the Economic Times had shared an exclusive report based on a dossier by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) it had accessed post the attack.
The NIA’s dossier talked about the active role of China in blocking sanctions against five terrorists from the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) groups involved in several attacks in India. These terrorists shielded by China by virtue of its behaviour at the UNSC included Abdul Rauf Asghar (JeM), Sajid Mir (LeT), Abdur Rehman Makki (LeT), Talha Saeed (LeT) and Shahid Mehmood Rehmatullah from Falah-i-lnsaniyat Foundation (FIF), a frontal outfit of LeT.
The QUAD’s foreign minister’s joint statement is also an important but different message vis-a-vis Pakistan and China because for the first time it officially places Jammu and Kashmir in an Indo-Pacific paradigm since QUAD, a quadrilateral alliance of India, Japan, US and Australia is focussed on a “free and fair” Indo-Pacific. It should be particularly noted that the statement referred to J&K in its entirety as “Jammu and Kashmir” and not as Indian administered Kashmir or Kashmir region as referred to in the Chinese media or a term completely omitted in statements by the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson on the matter.“We condemn in the strongest terms the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir on April 22, 2025, which claimed the lives of 25 Indian nationals and one Nepali citizen, while injuring several others,” said the QUAD statement.The joint statement should also be noted because it called on the UN member states for cooperation which is again an indirect dig at Pakistan and China.
“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,” it said.
China’s Statements and China’s Stakes
To discuss the joint statement on Pahalgam attack by the QUAD foreign ministers’ further in the geopolitical context between India, China, Pakistan it’s important to check the language of China’s multiple statements on the April 22 Pahalgam attack.
While answering questions during a regular press conference on April 28, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Guo Jiakun said: “China welcomes all measures that will help cool down the current situation and supports carrying out fair and just investigations at an early date.”
“As the neighbor of both India and Pakistan, China hopes that India and Pakistan will exercise restraint, work in the same direction, handle relevant differences properly through dialogue and consultation, and jointly uphold peace and stability in the region.”
Note that Guo refers to the issue without using the term “Jammu and Kashmir” while in the same conference, a PTI journalist from India used the term later and asked Guo: “You said just now answering a question on the recent terrorist attack that you call for swift and fair investigations. Can there be a possibility of fair investigation, especially when the allegations are that there’s state-sponsored terrorism across the border into Jammu and Kashmir? Can there be a fair investigation and how can it be? Can you elaborate?”
Guo answered but again omitted using the word “Jammu and Kashmir.” He said: “I answered a relevant question. Let me reiterate that both India and Pakistan are important countries in South Asia. Their harmonious coexistence is vital to the peace, stability and development of the region. As the neighbor of the two countries, China calls on the two sides to exercise restraint, solve differences through dialogue and jointly keep the region peaceful and stable.”The next day Guo again replied to a question on the matter by an AFP journalist but repeated omitting the usage of the word “Jammu and Kashmir.” After India hit terrorist infrastructure inside Pakistan on May 10 in its official statement, China called for calm and restraint but again omitted any reference to Jammu and Kashmir.It should be noted that the QUAD’s usage of Jammu and Kashmir is clearer and direct compared to China’s multiple statements which are ambiguous. China is certainly applying a convenient usage of words keeping its stakes of mediation between India and Pakistan open while also adhering to its so-called policy of neutrality on Kashmir.This neutrality has visibly been hypocritical on many occasions earlier, like post-Galwan in 2022, Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi had repeated OIC’s stand on Kashmir at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting in Pakistan.“On the Kashmir issue, we have once again heard the call of many Islamic friends. China shares the same aspiration,” the Chinese Foreign Minister had said. The statement at OIC was obviously made to irk India amidst tensions on the Ladakh border after the Galwan conflict.
Jammu & Kashmir in Indo-Pacific
Jammu and Kashmir was always geopolitically seen in the Middle East and South Asian context because of its territorial connectivity with the region. However, QUAD’s statement for the first time has placed it in a larger Indo-Pacific policy paradigm.Indo-Pacific is a wider region encompassing the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean and the countries surrounding it. India became integral to the Indo-Pacific policies of multiple countries including the US because of its burgeoning economic, strategic and geopolitical power and after the QUAD was revived in 2017 following a decade of inactivity.
India’s presence and indispensability at QUAD and the Indo-Pacific thus has finally brought Jammu and Kashmir’s mention on this multilateral platform for the first time. QUAD leaders have earlier condemned terrorism and extremism including condemnation of 26/11 and Pathankot attacks in its joint statement in 2022 but it had never directly referred to Jammu and Kashmir.
Plus the timing of the Pahalgam attack has put Jammu and Kashmir in a larger geopolitical framework of the trade war between US and China. The April 22 attack happened a day after US Vice President JD Vance landed in India and a day before Indian negotiators were to meet their US counterparts for trade negotiations. It immediately shifted the domestic and global focus from India-US trade conversations which was one of Vance’s agenda in India to the violent attack in Pahalgam.
As tensions rose between India-Pakistan, there was a simultaneous focus on the trade war and trade negotiations between US and China. The duo reached a tariff truce for 90 days in a meeting in Geneva on May 12–while the India-Pakistan borders were extremely tense–reducing each other’s tariffs from 145 to 30 percent and 125 to 10 percent respectively. It’s during this time that President Donald Trump kept reiterating that he had played a role in establishing a ceasefire between India and Pakistan on May 10 and that trade deals were given as a motivation to peace between New Delhi and Islamabad.While India kept refuting Trump’s claims, Pakistan kept approving of it–Pakistan even later nominated Trump for a Nobel peace prize for his role on June 21.“At a moment of heightened regional turbulence, President Trump demonstrated great strategic foresight and stellar statesmanship through robust diplomatic engagement with both Islamabad and New Delhi,” the Pakistan government said in a statement.The QUAD joint statement by the foreign ministers came after all these developments; after the US and China trade deal was signed on June 24 and before the India-US deal gets signed in the next few days.
Though Jammu and Kashmir isn’t directly linked to trade war or trade negotiations, these developments indicate that in this new era of trade wars and in this world with an India with mightier economic power, Kashmir narrative would find more shades in geopolitics.At times it would be to test India, at times it would be to hurt it and at times it would be done with more malice. Each time India would need to prove its worth, continue to assert itself and continue to stand stronger proving it deserves all the glory of an integrated, mightier and growing India.
(The Author is a senior journalist and a MOFA 2025 Taiwan fellow)
