New Delhi: As India campaigns for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for 2028-29, Union external affairs minister S. Jaishankar used his UN General Assembly address on Saturday to foreground Global South concerns over economic coercion, maritime security and artificial intelligence, while making a rare explicit reference to a two-state solution for the Israel-Palestine conflict.Pakistan, Palestine and Global SouthAt the General Assembly’s cavernous hall in New York, Jaishankar delivered his fifth consecutive speech at the annual plenary on Saturday afternoon, a run that began after Prime Minister Narendra Modi last attended the UNGA in person in 2021.Two months after India formally launched its campaign for the Security Council seat, Jaishankar’s address touched on many issues central to India’s campaign – including its development partnership with the Global South, peacekeeping, maritime security and its advocacy of a more representative international order – without making any direct reference to the election.India faces a contested election this time, with Tajikistan also in the fray for the lone Asia-Pacific seat in a vote scheduled for June 2027. India was elected unopposed the last time it contested the seat, for the 2021-22 term.As has become customary in his UNGA speeches, Jaishankar also devoted a section to terrorism, without naming Pakistan. Referring to the Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s address to the UNGA on Friday, he said that “a serial practitioner of terrorism misrepresented facts before this Assembly” and that attempts to “normalise terrorism and claim immunity from its consequences” would not stand. He reiterated that India would exercise its right to defend itself against terrorism and said that “friendship and goodwill cannot co-exist with terrorism”.In his speech, Sharif had raised Kashmir, the Indus Waters Treaty and the 2025 military confrontation with India, crediting US President Donald Trump with averting a wider conflict. India subsequently exercised its right of reply, with its first secretary at the UN, Petal Gehlot, rejecting Sharif’s claims and accusing Pakistan of supporting terrorism.But perhaps one of the more notable departure in Jaishankar’s speech, compared to previous years, came in his treatment of Palestine, where he used language that has not featured explicitly in his previous annual General Debate addresses.“We strongly believe that a durable and lasting peace requires a two-state solution,” Jaishankar said, adding that India was contributing humanitarian assistance and relief to Palestinians.The formulation is consistent with India’s longstanding policy on the Israel-Palestine conflict, but its explicit appearance in Jaishankar’s annual UNGA speech is striking. In his General Debate addresses from 2022 through 2025, Jaishankar referred to the conflict, violence and the need for peace, but did not refer to “two-state solution”. The same phrase is also absent from the General Debate speeches delivered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.India’s balancing on the Israel-Palestine under scrutinyWith Modi having visited Israel just days before the start of the attacks on Iran, and New Delhi having initially taken a strong line in support of Tel Aviv after October 7, India’s balancing on the Israel-Palestine issue had increasingly come under scrutiny.The Israel issue had also acquired a particular resonance in the context of Security Council elections this year. On June 3, Germany suffered an unprecedented defeat in its campaign for a non-permanent Security Council seat. German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul subsequently said that Berlin’s “special responsibility” towards Israel may have cost it votes, although he also attributed the defeat to Russian opposition.The issue was also highly visible at the ongoing General Assembly plenary. Nearly 70 delegations either walked out of the chamber or left their seats vacant when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began his address on September 24. Germany, the United States and several European delegations remained in the hall.While India was among the countries which remain in the hall, it also been active in the diplomatic push around Palestinian statehood and the two-state solution on the margins of the General Assembly. On Sep 24, Secretary (West) Sibi George represented India at the High-level Ministerial Meeting of the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution in New York, where India reiterated its support for the two-state solution.Earlier in July, Jaishankar had tweeted about his meeting with the head of the UN Palestinian aid agency, UNRWA, whose operations Israel has banned.Fresh tariff pressure, AI and climateA substantial part of Jaishankar’s speech was devoted to how economic interdependence was increasingly being used as leverage, describing what he called the “weaponisation of everything”.“A mindset of extreme competition has set in, undermining institutions and establishing choke points,” he said, arguing that this extended “from the world of finance to constricting market access, disrupting supply chains, and withholding technology”. Resources and connectivity, he added, had also become “particularly subject to leveraging”. The remarks came as India itself faces fresh US tariff pressure over its purchases of Russian oil, with Washington having authorised tariffs of up to 100% on countries that continue buying Russian energy. Meanwhile, the Iran war has exposed the vulnerability of energy and shipping routes, especially the Strait of Hormuz. The technology reference also comes amid growing US-China competition over advanced technologies, which has led both sides to put restrictions on exports.He stated these pressures were pushing countries towards “de-risking and diversifying”. While such steps could protect countries’ interests to varying degrees, he said, “the overall atmosphere is no longer that of trust or goodwill”.Jaishankar then turned specifically to the pressures facing developing countries, saying the Global South was facing a “4F crisis” involving “the security of food, fuel, fertiliser, and finance”. He linked this to a “super El Nino”, fertiliser shortages and impediments to grain movements, while saying that progress on the Sustainable Development Goals was also under pressure.He also said the Global South’s “right to industrialise” was being undermined by “non-market practices and market denial”.Separately, Jaishankar raised concerns about the impact of artificial intelligence, saying that technology that was “meant to instil hope” had instead become “a source of anxiety”. “Misuse of AI is sharpening bias and diluting mutual respect,” he said.He returned to artificial intelligence later in the speech, linking it to India’s development and Global South diplomacy. Referring to the AI Impact Summit hosted by India in February, he described AI as “a transformational driver for human empowerment, economic prosperity and population scale problem solving” and said countries had the right to develop their own AI models and deployment strategies according to their national priorities. “AI will be very much part of a partnership agenda with the Global South,” he said.The minister’s comments came as AI has increasingly become part of the contest for influence in the Global South, with China expanding cooperation networks, promoting Chinese open-weight models and pushing for a greater role in shaping global AI governance.Maritime securityIn this virtual ‘stump speech’, Jaishankar also highlighted India’s development and humanitarian work in the Global South, saying “the deep solidarity of the Global South has always encouraged us to share what we have” and citing 600 major development projects in 78 countries across infrastructure, manufacturing, agriculture, IT and capacity building. African nations and small island developing states, he named specifically, had been preferred partners. He also cited India’s “first-responder” role in conflict zones and disaster-hit areas, including assistance with food, medicine, energy and fertiliser needs.Maritime security was another prominent part of this year’s address, with Jaishankar linking attacks on commercial shipping to the wider disruption caused by conflicts. India is the second-largest suppliers of sailors to commercial ships, which has resulted in a score Indians being killed in attacks on merchant vessels by conflict players.“The targeting of commercial shipping and seafarers transiting international waterways is simply unacceptable,” he said, calling for restraint, de-escalation, protection of civilians and the “uninterrupted flow of energy and commerce”.Later, he said attacks had occurred “in the Gulf and from the Red Sea to the Black Sea”, noting that Indian seafarers had lost their lives along with others. “India has joined Liberia and 23 other partners in an initiative to rally global public opinion against such unwarranted targeting,” he said, stressing that the safety of shipping and seafarers must not be compromised and that international law had to be observed.