The Quad group comprising India, the United States, Japan, and Australia condemned the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in a joint statement issued after their foreign ministers met in Washington on July 1, but refrained from naming Pakistan or explicitly backing India’s right to retaliate, reflecting India’s failure to nurture results from its diplomatic outreach and the firmness of international support in isolating Pakistan.
Instead, the statement echoed the neutral language of a May UN Security Council press note, which had similarly avoided identifying the perpetrators or referencing the Indian government.
The communiqué, which marked the Quad’s second ministerial meeting this year, expressed strong condemnation of terrorism in all its forms, including cross-border attacks, and extended condolences to the victims, yet it avoided naming any group or country responsible, mirroring the language used in the earlier UNSC statement allegedly influenced by Pakistan and China.
Although the statement urged that the perpetrators, organisers, and financiers of the Pahalgam attack be brought to justice without delay, it fell short of calling for cooperation with the Indian government, instead referring vaguely to “relevant authorities” as it had done in the 2019 Pulwama attack statement, which had explicitly named Jaish-e-Mohammed.
India has maintained that a Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyaba offshoot carried out the Pahalgam attack, and in retaliation, it launched strikes on four targets across the border, resulting in a four-day military exchange that was halted after US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire, although New Delhi insisted there was no formal agreement, only an informal cessation following military-level contact.
In a development that appeared diplomatically significant, Pakistan’s army chief was invited to a lunch by Trump shortly thereafter, marking a symbolic shift that coincided with growing concerns in India about the re-hyphenation of India and Pakistan in international discourse.
The Modi government has since faced domestic criticism for failing to build international consensus against Pakistan, as previous Quad statements from 2024 had named attacks like 26/11 and Pathankot and called out Pakistan-based groups, but the latest communiqué avoided doing so.
Meanwhile, India’s messaging appeared inconsistent, as its Ministry of Defence initially released a statement referencing “Pakistan-sponsored terrorism” in the context of “Operation Sindoor” but retracted it shortly afterwards, omitting all references to Pakistan, despite the initial version being carried by state media.