Multilateral platforms are being misused to justify and protect perpetrators of terrorism, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Wednesday during an open debate at the UN Security Council, in a veiled attack on China and its close ally Pakistan.

Presiding over the UN Security Council open debate on ‘Maintenance of International Peace and Security: New Orientation for Reformed Multilateralism’,  Jaishankar also said the knock on effects of conflict situations have made a strong case that it cannot be “business as usual” in the multilateral domain.

“On the challenge of terrorism, even as the world is coming together with a more collective response, multilateral platforms are being misused to justify and protect perpetrators,” he said.

His remarks appeared to be a reference to repeated holds and blocks on proposals to blacklist terrorists, particularly those based on Pakistani soil like Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar, in the UN Security Council’s sanctions committee by veto-wielding permanent members such as China.

Addressing the powerful 15-nation Council, Jaishankar said that reform is the need of the day. “And I am confident that the Global South especially shares India’s determination to persevere,” he said.

“All of us are aware that the ‘Question of Equitable Representation on and Increase in the Membership of the Security Council’ has been on the UNGA agenda for well over the last three decades. While the debate on reforms has meandered aimlessly, the real world meantime has changed dramatically,” he said.

With inputs from NDTV