After India refused to sign the joint manifesto at the Defense Ministers meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in China on Thursday, some reports claimed that the Balochistan crisis was mentioned in the manifesto, but the Pahalgam terrorist attack was not mentioned, due to which India did not support the documents.
However, sources have clarified that these reports are completely incorrect. According to sources, the letter soup of the manifesto had neither B (Balochistan) nor P (Pahalgam). T (terrorism) was also not mentioned in the document. Because of this, India started retreating from signing the final manifesto.
Sources also stated that Defense Minister Rajnath Singh did not sign the SCO document, as India was not satisfied with the language of the joint document, as it had no mention of the terrorist attack in Pahalgam.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Friday that the Defense Minister did not sign the joint document as a country of a 10 -member group did not want to mention terrorism. Jaishankar said that the main objective of SCO is to fight terrorism.
The Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement that the meeting of SCO’s defense ministers was concluded without joint statement due to lack of consensus among the member countries.
It said, “India advocated the inclusion of terrorism concerns in the document, but a country objected to it. The Defense Minister insisted on regional stability and security, urging countries to unite against terrorism and to make criminals accountable.”
When asked about this development at a press conference in the national capital, Jaishankar said, “I give you some reference because I think it is important. The aim of Shanghai Cooperation Organization was to fight terrorism. This organization is present to fight terrorism. When Rajnath ji went to meet the meeting of Defense Ministers, and the results were discussed, then you can guess a country.
Jaishankar said, “Rajnath Singh’s attitude was correct, without that context that when the main objective of the organization is to fight terrorism and you are not allowing it to refer to it, he expressed his reluctance in accepting … SCO runs unanimously. A country walks unanimously to mention terrorism in a statement. Therefore, Rajnath ji did not agree to mention it clearly if we do not mention terrorism in the statement.”
Addressing the SCO Defense Council Council meeting held yesterday in Qingdao, China, Rajnath Singh had said that there should be no place for double standards regarding terrorism and group member countries should not hesitate to criticize countries involved in such acts.
