Jaishankar says SCO statement without terrorism reference unacceptable to India

Union External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said on Friday (June 27, 2025) that the results of the meeting of the Defense Ministers of India Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) wanted the reference to terrorism in the document, but it was not acceptable to a member country, a oblique reference to Pakistan.

Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar said that the main objective of SCO was to fight terrorism photo credit: PTI

Shri Jaishankar said that the Defense Minister Rajnath Singh’s perspective on the matter was correct as the main objective of the SCO was to fight terrorism and without the context of India’s concerns, he would not accept the result document.

Mr. Singh on Thursday refused to sign a joint communal of the SCO after the Missing of the Pahalgam terror attack and did not clearly address India’s concerns over terrorism across the Pakistan-limit.

At a conference of concluding SCO Defense Ministers, Mr. Singh demanded the inclusion of a terrorist attack in the Communication, while the Pakistani side pressured New Delhi to convince the terrorist activities in Balochistan to have a paragraph to be a paragraph, said the top sources said.

The purpose of the SCO that goes through consensus, was to fight terrorism, Mr. Jaishankar said in a press conference when asked about Mr. Singh’s stand.

He said, “In discussion on the result document of the meeting of the defense ministers, a country – you can guess which one – ‘No, we don’t want to reference to him’,” He said.

The SCO goes on unanimously, Mr. Jaishankar said, but when a country said that it would not accept any mention of terrorism, Mr. Singh said that the result document was not acceptable for India.