Pakistan Minister's remark on Rajnath Singh's refusal to sign SCO document: 'They had no supporters at SCO'

Pakistan Defence Minister Khwaja Asif said Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's decision to not sign the joint statement at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) was because "India didn't get a chance to criticise Pakistan's stance." 

 

Asif, who earlier courted controversy by publicly accepting that Pakistan had trained terrorists in its soil, claimed there was no tension in the environment despite the presence of Indian officials. 

 

"The SCO operates under established rules. You don’t get to respond to someone else’s speech once yours is over," he said. "There’s no opportunity to criticise someone else’s remarks. When they [India] were not allowed to criticise, they refused to sign the joint communiqué," Asif bizarrely claimed. 

 

He said countries present at the SCO meeting supported Pakistan’s stance. "India’s position was baseless and founded on lies. It found no support at the international forum," Asif said. 

 

India refused to sign the draft as it did not make any mention of the Pahalgam attack in which India was a victim while mentioning the disturbances in Balochistan. The Ministry of External Affairs clarified that consensus could not be reached for the adoption of the document as "one particular country" did not find it acceptable to address India's concerns on terrorism. Rajnath Singh took a jab at Pakistan then stating how some countries "use cross-border terrorism as an instrument of policy and provide shelter to terrorists."

 

Asif also criticised PM Modi, in an interview with Karachi-based Geo News, stating that India cannot make unilateral decisions with regard to the Indus Waters Treaty. "We had anticipated India would resort to intransigence," he said. He then went on to comment on Modi’s political future, stating he believed Narendra Modi’s political days are numbered.

 

Pakistan Deputy Prime Minister Dar too joined the anti-India chorus stating India's decision to put in abeyance the Indus Waters Treaty "water terrorism". "India cannot impose its will on Pakistan and must reconsider its policies,” the deputy prime minister said, adding that India’s actions would be unacceptable and counterproductive. He reiterated Pakistan's baseless claim of a "false-flag operation", about the Pulwama incident.

 

Dar then went on to suggest that a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue was essential for stability in the region. 

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