On 24 October, India hit back at Pakistan in the UN General Assembly's Third Committee during a dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues. Raghoo Puri, First Secretary at India's Permanent Mission to the UN, accused Islamabad of painting a "propagandist" picture of India. He said Pakistan's "Form 47 government" dare not override instructions from the military, which he called the country's real rulers.
What "Form 47" means:
Form 47 is the Pakistani election document that records provisional consolidated results of a constituency.
Pakistan's February 2024 general election faced allegations of rigging, and critics use "Form 47" as shorthand for a government of doubtful mandate.
India's use of the term signals sharper public messaging on Pakistan's civil–military imbalance.
The SAARC angle:
India also placed the blame for SAARC's paralysis on Pakistan.
The 2016 SAARC summit in Islamabad was called off after India pulled out over cross-border terrorism following the Uri attack.
India has since focused on BIMSTEC and other groupings that do not include Pakistan.
Other points India made:
Pakistan was using the UN to divert attention from its economic distress, lawlessness and human rights violations at home.
Pakistan's minority population has been shrinking, and it should look after its own citizens.
Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India. The only outstanding issue is Pakistan vacating the territory it illegally occupies.
India is a multi-religious, multi-ethnic and multilingual society with constitutional safeguards for minorities.
Protecting minority rights is mainly the sovereign responsibility of each country.
Prelims pointers
The UNGA has six Main Committees. The Third Committee handles social, humanitarian and cultural issues, including human rights.
First = Disarmament and International Security. Fourth = Special Political and Decolonisation. Sixth = Legal.
Special Rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council (Geneva, created 2006).
SAARC was set up in Dhaka in 1985. Its secretariat is in Kathmandu and it has eight members. The last summit was held in Kathmandu in 2014.
BIMSTEC was formed in 1997 and has seven members. Its secretariat is in Dhaka.
Mains angle
India now uses multilateral forums to question Pakistan's democratic credentials directly, not just its record on terrorism. This strengthens the narrative of isolating Pakistan, but it also turns thematic UN human-rights dialogues into bilateral battlegrounds. India's regional strategy rests on:
Terrorism as the core obstacle to normal ties.
BIMSTEC and sub-regional (BBIN) cooperation as alternatives to SAARC.
Neighbourhood First outreach to smaller South Asian states.
The full text of the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey is out. It became public after Turkey submitted the agreement to its Parliament for ratification on 20 October. The 16-article pact focuses more on military capacity-building than on NATO-style mutual defence.
The pact was signed over two months ago. It builds on the Saudi–Pakistan defence agreement and reflects new security arrangements in West Asia as US protection shrinks.
On 21 October, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey and Indonesia signed a separate military cooperation agreement.
Prelims pointers
Article 2 treats an armed attack on one party as requiring others to assist with "all means" they can provide. It does not bind them to use force, unlike NATO's Article 5.
Seven articles deal with joint capacity-building: security consultations, counter-terrorism, joint training and exercises, intelligence sharing and logistics.
Article 7 commits the parties to defence-technology sharing, joint development and joint production.
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are named as "core parties" for 10 years, leaving room for new members.
Comparable treaties:
North Atlantic Treaty (NATO), 1949.
Collective Security Treaty (CSTO), 1992.
GCC Joint Defence Agreement, 2000.
Mains angle
A Pakistan-linked defence-industrial bloc in West Asia could affect India's ties with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, its energy security and the welfare of its diaspora there.
US President Donald Trump said the US and India are "pretty close" to a bilateral trade deal, which he called a different kind of deal from America's other pacts. A day earlier, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the two sides were weeks, not months, from finalising it. The remaining gaps, he said, are about the precise wording.
Talks began in February 2025, but stalled after the US imposed 50% tariffs on India: 25% reciprocal plus 25% for buying Russian oil.
A framework was agreed in February 2026. Weeks later, the US Supreme Court struck down the President's use of emergency powers to impose tariffs, forcing renegotiation.
Prelims pointers
Since 2025 the US has signed trade pacts with Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, the UK and the EU.
On 16 October, Trump paused the Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026. The Act allowed tariffs of up to 100% on major buyers of Russian energy.
Free trade agreements are a permitted exception to the WTO's Most-Favoured-Nation rule under Article XXIV of GATT.
India's recent trade pacts:
India–EFTA TEPA, in force since October 2025.
India–UK CETA, signed in July 2025.
India–New Zealand FTA, in force from 20 October 2026.
Mains angle
The deal tests India's balance between market access and protecting agriculture, dairy and policy space. It also shows how tariffs have become a tool of foreign policy.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is in Dushanbe for the 25th SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting on October 19–20. The agenda covers trade, connectivity, investment and innovation, plus the bloc's budget and institutional work. India is pushing for diversified supply chains in critical minerals, pharma and electronics. For India, a member since 2017, the SCO is a channel to Central Asia even as China and Pakistan shape much of its agenda.
The move comes after Israel ordered the closure of the consulate in September as retaliation after London-led Western sanctions over violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank
Ukraine President Zekenskyy said “we are losing a strong partner” in the United States. He said that “it's painful when President Trump chooses one side, not our side. But we are OK that he's in the middle”
Merchants in Gaza coordinate directly with vendors outside the territory, whose shipments are examined by Israel's military before entering Gaza; the Ministry had been asking merchants to pay 10,000 shekels (about $3,226) per truck entering Gaza, the head of private truckers union said
The proposed summit comes amid warming ties between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin especially after the U.S. President announced a deal to buy Russian diesel
Earlier, Donald Trump said that he was in the process of negotiating peace between Russia and Ukraine and making "great progress," but claimed Zelenskyy “doesn't want to end this war”
