External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Friday asserted that the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) will have to stick to its founding mission of fighting terrorism, and all member countries should coordinate both their words and deeds to further this common purpose.
In an address to a function in New Delhi, Jaishankar reaffirmed India's strong opposition to any justification, glorification, or obscuration of terrorism — views which coincided with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's recent refusal to sign a joint statement at the SCO Defence Ministers' Meeting.
Though avoiding mention of Pakistan by name, Jaishankar said, "The SCO was formed with aim of combating terror. If any nation on this platform selectively denies mention of terror acts or refuses to identify terrorism threats, then it goes against the very objective of organisation."
His statement came on the heels of Thursday's Chinese meeting, during which Rajnath Singh refused to sign a joint statement over its failure to mention terrorism-related issues — specifically the April 22, Pahalgam massacre, in which 26 people lost their lives, the majority of them tourists, including one Nepali.
"Our stand is quite clear," Jaishankar asserted. "There was one country that objected to the reference to terrorism and everybody knows which country it was. That is why our Defence Minister did not sign off on the statement. If our common objective is to combat terrorism, then we must condemn every act and every location affected."
India has traditionally promoted greater security cooperation under the SCO, but has often been met with opposition by nations that differentiate between various types of terrorism.
The exclusion of the Pahalgam incident from the official statement by the SCO further underscored the underlying tensions within the group.
Besides India, the SCO consists of member states like Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, and Belarus. India joined the SCO in 2017 and took over the rotating chairmanship in 2023.
Read also| Shubhanshu Shukla Carrying Aspirations Of 1.4 Billion Indians, Says PM Modi
