External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday supported Defense Minister Rajnath Singh’s refusal to sign the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Explaining the argument behind the move, Jaishankar said that a member country of SCO did not want to mention terrorism in a joint statement, while the organization was formed with the aim of fighting terrorism.
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The news agency ANI quoted Jaishankar as saying that when the main objective of the organization is to fight terrorism and you are not allowing it to mention it, he (Rajnath Singh) expressed reluctance in accepting it. Although Jaishankar did not name the country which did not want to mention terrorism in the statement, but he indirectly sarcastically said, “You can guess which country is.”
Apart from India, SCO member countries are Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran and Belarus. India became a member of the SCO in 2017 and assumed the post of Rotational Chairman in 2023. Jaishankar said, “The SCO runs unanimously. So Rajnath ji clearly stated that if terrorism is not mentioned in the statement, we will not sign it.”
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Rajnath Singh, who visited the Qingdao in China, refused to sign a joint statement on Thursday, as he cited failure in the solution of terrorism concerns, especially the 22 April Pahalgam terror attacks, in which 26 people were killed, most of the tourists, which had caused failure in the resolution. The Pahalgam attack was not mentioned in a joint statement, but it mentioned the Jafar Express abduction in Pakistan by the Balochistan Liberation Army on March 11. Rajnath Singh’s move could not release the joint release in the meeting of SCO Defense Ministers.