News Brief
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh Was Right To Reject SCO Statement Without Terror Reference: S Jaishankar
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday (27 June) backed Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s refusal to sing the joint declaration at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) defence ministers’ meeting in Qingdao, China.
The 10-member SCO faced a setback when one member state blocked any mention of terrorism in the final document, despite it being a core objective.
Jaishankar said “one country” which is part of the SCO wanted no mention to terrorism in the joint statement, even when the organisation was formed with the purpose to fight terrorism.
"The SCO was formed with the objective of fighting terrorism. When Rajnath Singh went to the Defence Ministers' Meeting and there was a discussion on the outcome document, one country said they do not want a reference to that. Rajnath Singh's view rightly was, without that reference, that when the main purpose of the organisation is to fight terrorism, and you are not allowing a reference to that, he expressed his unwillingness to accept...," Jaishankar was quoted by news agency ANI.
While the EAM did not name the country that did not want a reference to terrorism in the outcome statement, he said “you can guess which one”, in a veiled jibe at Pakistan.
India became a member of the SCO in 2017 and assumed the rotating Chairmanship in 2023.
“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,” Jaishankar added.
According to a report by The Hindustan Times, the disagreement centred on the 22 April Pahalgam terror attack in India, which killed 26 people, mostly tourists.
Singh objected to the communique’s silence on this attack while it mentioned a train hijacking in Pakistan by the Balochistan Liberation Army, reportedly pushed by Pakistan to deflect blame onto India.
