New Delhi: Pakistan defence minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif skipped a key meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers hosted by India Friday, with the nation choosing to send in the assistant to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif via video link.
Addressing his counterparts from China, Russia, Iran, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh stressed on the need to root out terrorism collectively and fix accountability on its supporters.
ThePrint had reported Sunday that while Pakistan had announced that its foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto would attend the SCO Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Goa, Asif would skip the Defence Ministers’ meeting.
While sources had said that Asif could attend the meeting virtually, Pakistan eventually sent in Wali Ahmed Khan, Special Assistant to PM Shareef.
At the meeting in New Delhi, Singh called upon the member states of SCO — a multinational group founded in 2001 — to collectively work towards eliminating terrorism in all its forms and fix accountability on those who aid or fund such activities.
He pointed out that any kind of terrorist act or support to it in any form “was a major crime against humanity and peace and prosperity could not coexist with this menace”.
“If a nation shelters terrorists, it not only poses a threat to others but for itself, too. Radicalisation of youth is a cause of concern not only from the point of view of security, but is also a major obstacle in the path of socio-economic progress of society. If we want to make the SCO a stronger and more credible international organisation, our top-most priority should be to effectively deal with terrorism,” Singh said.
At the end of the meet, all SCO member countries signed a protocol expressing their collective will to make the region (Eurasia) secure, peaceful and prosperous.
Addressing reporters after the meeting, Union defence secretary Giridhar Aramane stated that all SCO member nations arrived at a consensus on several areas of cooperation, including dealing with terrorism, security of vulnerable populations in various countries as well as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
He said that all member states were unanimous in their statements that terrorism, in all its forms, must be condemned and eliminated.
Also read: Jihadist threat at home, Pakistan lost 6 times more personnel to terror than India did in 2022
‘Win-win paradigm’
In his address, Singh asserted that India envisions a robust framework of regional cooperation which “mutually respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all member states by taking care of their legitimate interests”.
He added that New Delhi strives to further bolster trust and cooperation among the members of the SCO as it believes in maintaining peace and security based on the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.
Talking about his vision to ensure collective prosperity, Singh called for concerted efforts by the SCO member states so that the region, with limitless possibilities in today’s multilateral world, shifts to the mindset of “great gain from win-win paradigm” from “great game of zero sum, win-lose paradigm”, a statement from the defence ministry said.
“India has always followed the principle of ‘let us walk together and move forward together’. Every era has a zeitgeist (defining idea). The zeitgeist of the present era is ‘win-win cooperation for the great gain’,” he said.
Singh touched upon the two defence-related activities launched by India, as the SCO chair, to increase interoperability among member states. These included a workshop on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief and a seminar on ‘defence think tanks of SCO countries’.
He further emphasised on India’s commitment towards defence capacity building of SCO member states through training, co-manufacturing and co-development of items.
Singh stated that “as security challenges are not limited to any one country, India is moving forward with a collaborative approach in the field of defence partnership, keeping in mind the shared interests”.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)