- India has refused to sign the SCO joint statement due to lack of consensus on terrorism
- Foreign Minister Rajnath Singh attended the defence ministers' meet but no joint statement was adopted
- The statement omitted the Pahalgam terror attack and mentioned Balochistan incidents instead
India refused to sign the joint statement at the SCO meet chaired by China since a consensus could not be reached on terrorism. The foreign ministry said today that foreign minister Rajnath Singh had participated in the defence ministers' meet.
"They could not adopt a joint statement. Consensus could not be reached. On our side we wanted the concerns of terrorism reflected in that," a spokesperson said.
Sources had said that the statement had skipped any mention of the Pahalgam terror attack of April 22 and mentioned incidents in Balochistan instead, tacitly suggesting Indian involvement.
India has consistently rubbished Pakistan's allegations on Baluchistan but this found its way into the joint statement, with Pakistan's all-weather ally China chairing the meet.
India had undertaken a massive diplomatic outreach after Operation Snidoor, sending all-party delegations to 33 nations. But none of the nations on the SCO list -- Belarus, China, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan -- were included.
In his statement at SCO, Mr Singh had taken a veiled swipe at Pakistan.
"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. 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," he said.
