India’s refusal to endorse a joint communique at the SCO meeting over terrorism concerns blocked its issuance, highlighting regional tensions.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) defence ministers’ meeting couldn’t issue a joint communique on Thursday 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.
During the Pahalgam terror attack, victims were shot after they were profiled on religious identity, and the The Resistance Front — a proxy of UN-designated terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) — claimed responsibility for it, Singh said.
“The pattern of Pahalgam attack matches with LeT’s previous terror attacks in India. India’s zero tolerance for terrorism was demonstrated through its actions. We have shown that epicentres of terrorism are no longer safe and we will not hesitate to target them.”
India launched the Operation Sindoor in the early hours of May 7 and struck terror and military installations in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), It triggered a four-day military confrontation with Pakistan involving fighter jets, missiles, drones, long-range weapons and heavy artillery before the two sides reached an understanding on stopping all military action on May 10.
The biggest challenges faced by the region were related to peace, security and trust-deficit, with increasing radicalisation, extremism and terrorism being the root cause of these problems, Singh said.
“Peace and prosperity cannot co-exist with terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the hands of non-state actors and terror groups. Dealing with these challenges requires decisive action.”
On May 15, Singh questioned if nuclear weapons were safe in Pakistan’s control and custody and demanded that its arsenal be placed under the supervision of global nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), calling the neighbour “irresponsible and rogue”.
“It is imperative that those who sponsor, nurture and utilise terrorism for their narrow and selfish ends must bear the consequences. 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. SCO should not hesitate to criticise such nations,” Singh said in Qingdao.
Singh called for proactive steps to check the spread of radicalisation among the youth, acknowledging the significant role of the RATS (regional anti-terrorist structure — a body under the SCO) mechanism in tackling the challenge. “The joint statement of the Council of SCO Heads of State on ‘Countering Radicalisation leading to Terrorism, Separatism and Extremism’ issued during India’s chairmanship symbolises our shared commitment.”
