Jaishankar Backs Rajnath Singh’s Stand at SCO, Cites Opposition to Terror Reference.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Friday defended Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s decision to not sign the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) joint statement, citing the exclusion of any reference to terrorism in the final document.
Speaking to reporters, Jaishankar said that “one country” within the SCO had objected to the inclusion of terrorism-related language, despite the organisation’s founding objective being to combat terrorism. “When the main purpose of the organisation is to fight terrorism, and you are not allowing a reference to that… he (Rajnath Singh) expressed his unwillingness to accept it,” Jaishankar said, as quoted by ANI.
Although Jaishankar did not name the country, he added, “You can guess which one,” in an apparent reference to Pakistan.
India has been a full member of the SCO since 2017. Other members include China, Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, and Belarus. India held the rotating presidency in 2023.
Jaishankar emphasized that the SCO operates through consensus, noting, “Rajnath ji clearly said that if there is no mention of terrorism in the statement, we will not sign it.”
Rajnath Singh, who was attending the SCO Defence Ministers’ meeting in Qingdao, China, on Thursday, declined to endorse the joint communique, objecting to its omission of the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, which killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The communique, however, included a reference to the March 11 hijacking of Pakistan’s Jaffar Express by the Balochistan Liberation Army.
Sources suggest Pakistan had lobbied for the Balochistan incident’s inclusion while resisting any mention of terror attacks in India. According to PTI, this was perceived as an attempt to redirect the spotlight away from cross-border terrorism.
In his remarks at the meeting, Rajnath Singh called for strong accountability for those involved in terrorism. “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. The SCO should not hesitate to criticise such nations,” he said, with Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif and Chinese counterpart Dong Jun in attendance.
Singh also highlighted India’s recent Operation Sindoor—a targeted military response to terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir following the Pahalgam attack. He said the attack bore the hallmarks of previous Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operations in India, and stressed that India’s zero-tolerance approach to terrorism was reflected in its swift action.
The failure to reach a consensus on the final joint statement meant the SCO Defence Ministers’ meeting concluded without issuing a communique for the first time in recent memory.
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