New Delhi (TIP)- The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) defence ministers’ meeting couldn’t issue a joint communique on Thursday, June 26, after India refused to endorse the document because it didn’t address its terrorism-related concerns, officials aware of the matter said. Defence minister Rajnath Singh, who attended the meeting at Qingdao in China, refused to sign the joint communique as it was silent on the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed but mentioned Balochistan and the hijacking of the Jaffer Express by Baloch militants in March, the officials said, asking not to be named.
Pakistan’s insistence on not having any reference to the Pahalgam attack, while retaining the reference to the situation in Balochistan, stymied the finalisation of a joint statement, the officials said. The SCO works by consensus and a joint communique cannot be issued if even one member state doesn’t endorse it.
China, the current president of the SCO, has deep military and strategic ties with Pakistan, which it strongly supported during the recent four-day clashes with India under Operation Sindoor. The operation was India’s direct military response to the Pahalgam terror strike, the worst attack on civilians since the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
External affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal responded to a question about the SCO meeting’s failure to issue a joint communique by tacitly pointing to Pakistan’s role in the matter.
“I understand [the meet] could not adopt a joint statement. I also understand that certain member countries could not reach consensus on certain issues and hence the document could not be finalised. On our side, India wanted concerns on terrorism reflected in the document, which was not acceptable to one particular country, and therefore the statement was not adopted,” he said.
A press release issued by the Indian side is “very instructive in how we look at the threat of terrorism”, he said.
“The defence minister, in his address, called upon these 11 countries to come together to fight terrorism in all its forms and manifestations… He also reiterated the need to uphold that the perpetrators, organisers, financers, sponsors of reprehensible acts of terrorism, including cross-border terrorism, need to be held accountable and brought to justice,” Jaiswal said.
Singh further said SCO members must be “in lockstep in our endeavour in strengthening stability and security in our neighborhood”, he added.
In his address, Singh said every act of terrorism was criminal and unjustifiable, and the bloc must unite in eliminating the menace for collective safety and security. He said India launched Operation Sindoor, exercising its right to defend itself against terrorism and pre-empt and deter further cross-border attacks.