Right to defence!
Washington has once again reaffirmed its support for Islamabad to defend itself against terrorism, emanating from the Afghan soil. The fact that the US was bogged down for decades inside Afghanistan fighting reclusive elements comes to embolden its commitment for exterminating the faceless enemy. And Pakistan has been a prime victim of terrorism having lost more than 70,000 lives, and continues to bleed. This reinforces efforts on the bilateral and global levels to foment a broader strategy to fight the terror nexus that continues to strengthen in Afghanistan.
The latest US endorsement – coming amid the ninth review of the UN Global Counterterrorism Strategy (GCTS), a global framework adopted in 2006 and periodically reviewed to guide international cooperation against terrorism – validates Pakistan's inherent right to self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter. This shared stance underscores the urgent need for robust intelligence sharing and a unified diplomatic front, especially as Kabul and New Delhi continue to posture aggressively against Islamabad.
The US support for counter-terrorism needs to be read with the State Department's latest decisions to proscribe BLA, TTP and other entities as terror organisations. So, the nomenclature is there to rewrite a new anti-terror strategy for the region and beyond, in an attempt to ensure that hegemonic states such as India and Afghanistan, acting in cahoots, do not come to undermine sovereignty and territorial integrity of regional entities.
Thus, Pakistan's stance at the UN in support of the GCTS-related resolution that urges member states to finalise a convention aimed at closing loopholes in the existing international law, and establishing a universally binding legal framework, is a step in the right direction. Pakistan faces an existential threat from India and Afghanistan, as they collaborate to foment terrorism in the region. The UN must also deliberate over the notion of equating self-determination and self-defence with terrorism, and adopt a categorical position in line with the nation-states' right to survival.