New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday defended Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s decision to refuse signing the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) joint statement, citing deliberate attempts to omit references to terrorism.
Speaking to reporters, Jaishankar explained: “When the main purpose of the organisation is to fight terrorism, and you are not allowing a reference to that, he (Rajnath Singh) expressed his unwillingness to accept…” (ANI)
While Jaishankar refrained from directly naming the country opposing the terrorism mention, he remarked, “You can guess which one,” in a thinly veiled dig at Pakistan.
The SCO, formed to counter terrorism among other goals, includes India, China, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, and Belarus. India became a full member in 2017 and chaired the group in 2023.
Jaishankar added, “SCO runs with unanimity. So Rajnath ji clearly said that if there is no mention of terrorism in the statement, we will not sign it.”
Rajnath Singh, who was in Qingdao, China, on Thursday, refused to endorse the joint statement because it ignored India’s concerns about terrorism, including the recent April 22 Pahalgam attack in which 26 people, mostly tourists, were killed.
Interestingly, the statement did mention the hijacking of Pakistan’s Jaffar Express by the Balochistan Liberation Army on March 11, while completely omitting the Pahalgam attack. According to PTI, Pakistan pushed hard for this reference to shift blame onto India.
In his address at Qingdao, Rajnath Singh took aim at Pakistan: “Some countries use cross-border terrorism as an instrument of policy and provide shelter to terrorists. There should be no place for such double standards. The SCO should not hesitate to criticise such nations.”
He further demanded accountability for the “perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors” of terrorist acts.
