India refused to sign SCO statement as it did not reflect stance on terrorism, says MEA
India did not sign a joint statement at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Defence Ministers’ meeting held in China as the document did not reflect New Delhi’s position against terror, said the Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday.
“India wanted concerns and terrorism reflected in the document, which was not acceptable to one particular country,” said Randhir Jaiswal, the ministry’s spokesperson, during a press briefing.
The joint statement reportedly did not contain references to the Pahalgam terror attack that took place on April 22 and killed 26 persons, according to The Indian Express.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a regional inter-governmental body, was established in 2001. Its members are India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran and Belarus.
At the organisation’s meeting in Qingdao, Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh called upon the member countries to come together to “fight terrorism in all its forms and manifestations”, Jaiswal said during the briefing.
Singh also reiterated the need to uphold that the “perpetrators, organisers, financers and sponsors of reprehensible acts of terrorism”, including cross-border terrorism, need to be held accountable and brought to justice, the spokesperson added.
The defence minister mentioned during the meeting that the region’s biggest challenges are related to peace, security and trust deficits, with increasing radicalisation, extremism and terrorism being the root cause of these problems,...
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