‘Durable peace requires 2-state solution’: India at UN on Israel-Palestine

External affairs minister S Jaishankar has reiterated India's support for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, saying a durable and lasting peace in West Asia requires the establishment of separate Israeli and Palestinian states.

“We strongly believe that a durable and lasting peace requires a two-state solution,” he said during his address to the UN General Assembly on Saturday.

Jaishankar also underlined India's humanitarian assistance to Palestinians amid the ongoing conflict.

“In the meantime, India is contributing to humanitarian assistance and relief efforts for the Palestinian people,” Jaishankar said.

It is not for the first time that New Delhi has backed the two-state solution. Earlier, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) said it favours the establishment of a “sovereign, independent and viable State of Palestine within secure and recognized borders, living side by side in peace with Israel”.

Last year, the government backed Palestine's membership of the United Nations while condemning the October 7, 2023 terror attacks on Israel and the loss of civilian lives in the subsequent Israel-Hamas conflict.

The MEA last year said that India has provided around 70 MT of humanitarian aid to Palestinians since the beginning of the conflict, including 16.5 MT of medicines and medical supplies sent in two tranches in October and November 2023.

India 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 last five years, India has completed projects worth $26 million in Palestine, according to the government.

Two-state solution has no substitute: India

India's support for the two-state solution 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 such a settlement and called for concrete steps towards achieving it.

"Reaffirmation of support must take the form of actionable steps that pave the way for the two-state solution. Identification of such steps and their implementation modalities demand our collective attention and effort,” he said.

Jaishankar calls for end to conflicts

In his address, Jaishankar also called for an end to ongoing wars, saying that “endless war must now give way to an end to conflict”. He expressed concerns over continuing hostilities in the Gulf and described the situation in Ukraine as “equally troubling”.

The minister also criticised Pakistan at the UN General Assembly, saying attempts by a “serial practitioner of terrorism” to normalise terrorism and claim immunity from its consequences would not stand.

"Yesterday, a serial practitioner of terrorism misrepresented facts before this Assembly," Jaishankar said, in a veiled reference to Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who had raised the Kashmir issue in his UN address on Friday.

Without naming Pakistan or Sharif, Jaishankar said arguments had been made to “normalise terrorism, and claim immunity from its consequences.”

He also said attacks targeting commercial shipping and seafarers travelling through international waterways were “simply unacceptable”.