Islamabad:
India on Thursday suffered a diplomatic humiliation at the meeting with defense ministers in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) when Member States refused to support New Delhi’s position against Pakistan.
Defense members of the 10-National SCO, including host China, Russia, Iran, India, Pakistan and others met for a two-day hug in the Chinese city of Qingdao.
The meeting ended without issuing a joint communication when India refused to sign the document, referred to reservations, and claimed that the declaration should be in line with Pakistan’s attitude.
The draft joint statement did not mention the Pahagam attack despite India’s best efforts, but referred to terrorist incidents in Pakistan, especially in Balochistan. Apart from India, all other members approved the joint statement.
However, India refused to sign the document and left the host country not to make a joint statement.
Diplomatic sources told The Express Pakinomist that it was an important diplomatic success for Pakistan and a blow to India trying to politicize the SCO meeting and implicate Islamabad.
Although the Indian media tried to turn the narrative and insisted that the Indian Defense Minister stood his land, former Indian Foreign Minister and BJP leader Yaswant Singha admitted it was a total failure of the modi government.
“India is completely isolated on the global scene. SCO Communiqué is the latest example in which the terrorist attack on Pahaldam has been ignored and Balochistan has been mentioned. The prime minister has failed completely and has to resign,” Sinha wrote at X, who served as India’s Foreign Minister under the Vajpayee’s government.
The reason that India could not muster support from other countries was its failure to present evidence against Pakistan after the Pahagam attack.
Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh offered the SCO meeting nothing new. Instead, he referred to the past terrorist incidents as evidence of Pakistan’s commitment.
Singh allegedly claimed that the joint statement “was adapted to Pakistan’s narrative” because it did not include the attack, but mentioned terrorist activities in Balochistan, according to the Indian media.
Singh, without explicitly naming Pakistan SCO, called for criticizing countries using “cross -border terrorism as an instrument of politics and giving shelter to terrorists”. He said members should unite in removing terrorism and securing accountability to those who help such activities, without mentioning Pakistan.
“Peace and prosperity cannot coexist with terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction in the hands of non-state actors and terrorist groups. Handling these challenges requires decisive action,” Singh said, according to a statement of the Ministry of Defense.
By taking a jibe on his Indian colleague, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif SCO told Pakistan to condemn the terrorist attack in the internationally recognized disputed and illegally occupied Kashmir region. “We urge all states to keep these states accounting, who planned, funded and sponsored terrorist attacks such as Jaffar Express in Balochistan,” he demanded.
He promised Islamabad’s unwavering obligation to SCO’s principles and goals, but highlighted the need to solve long -term problems.
“The international community should ensure a peaceful solution of the long -standing unresolved conflicts in Kashmir [as such] Unluined conflicts remain a constant threat to global peace and security, ”he emphasized.
The Minister of Defense described terrorism as a common threat to be dealt with collectively.
“All states should refrain from politicizing joint efforts against terrorism,” the minister added.
