India on Tuesday, September 29, firmly rejected the references to Jammu and Kashmir made by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his address at the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal called the remarks unwarranted and made it clear that New Delhi will not entertain outside commentary on the issue.
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What Erdogan Said at the UNGA
Erdogan urged dialogue on South Asian issues, including Kashmir, and called for solutions based on the United Nations Charter. His remarks came with Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif present in the hall, giving Islamabad a friendly voice on a global stage.
India’s Response
Jaiswal said the matter concerns India’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. He added that no external party has any locus standi, meaning legal standing, to comment on it. India has long maintained that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral and inalienable part of the country and that there is no room for third-party mediation.
A Pattern Turkey Keeps Repeating
This is not the first time Erdogan has raised Kashmir at the UN. He spoke on it in 2019 after India revoked Article 370, and again at later sessions. At the 80th UNGA in 2025, he raised it once more, and India called the comments objectionable. Jaiswal also said then that the world would do better to call out Pakistan’s use of cross-border terrorism. In February 2025, Erdogan repeated his stand during a visit to Islamabad.
Strained India-Turkey Ties
Relations between the two countries have been under pressure since the April 2025 Pahalgam terror attack and India’s Operation Sindoor, which targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Turkey’s support for Pakistan during that period did not go down well in New Delhi.
For Pakistan, the UNGA has often been a stage to internationalise Kashmir. But each attempt has met the same firm answer from India, and this year was no different.
