India-Pakistan faceoff widens fissure at SCO defence ministers’ meet; no joint statement
There will be no joint statement from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) defence ministers’ meeting being held at Qingdao in China’s Shandong Province.
An official source familiar with the development told THE WEEK: “India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh refused to sign a joint declaration as the language used in the draft statement to describe terror and cross-border terrorism was not in consonance with India’s position.”
Unconfirmed reports said the draft of the joint statement had not included the Pahalgam attack in Kashmir as a terror incident while including the attack on a passenger train near the Bolan pass in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.
On April 22, Pakistan-backed terrorists had gunned down 26 civilians after identifying their religion while on March 11, the Jaffar Express was waylaid and hijacked by Balochistan Liberation Army militants resulting in the death of about 64 people, including about 33 militants.
India retaliated to the Pahalgam attack with its Operation Sindoor while the Pakistanis launched Operation Bunyan al-Marsoos, leading to a four-day-long intense fight between the militaries of the two countries.
Begun in 2020, the SCO is considered to be an increasingly powerful multilateral grouping that represents 42 per cent of the world population inhabiting about 24 per cent of the area of the world with its combined nominal GDP accounting for about 23 per cent.
The SCO defence ministers’ meet on June 25-26 in Qingdao is considered very significant in the backdrop of conflicts where its members—Russia and Iran—are directly involved. There is an ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine and a ceasefire-paused military conflict between Israel and Iran.
On June 24, the National Security Advisers (NSAs) and their equivalents met where India’s NSA Ajit Doval pitched for a three-pronged joint counter-terror effort by SCO countries comprising an algorithm of joint actions against global terror networks, joint counter-measures against radicalisation and joint information operations to counter extremist ideology.
After having abstained from the UN vote seeking a Gaza ceasefire, India also did not agree to a SCO statement condemning Israel’s strikes on Iran.
Defence