Jaishankar says India won't accept SCO statement without reference to terrorism

In a veiled dig at Pakistan, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday (June 27) said that India’s demand for a reference to terrorism in the joint statement at the conclusion of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) defence ministers' meeting was not acceptable to one member country.

Agrees with Rajnath

Jaishankar backed Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s decision of refusing to sign the statement. He also said that Singh took the right decision since the main objective of the SCO was to combat terrorism without reference to it (on India's concerns on terrorism), he refused to accept the outcome document.

Speaking to reporters, Jaishankar said that the objective of the SCO, which runs through consensus, was to fight terrorism, when asked about Singh's stand.

"In the discussion on outcome document of the defence ministers' meeting, one country- you can guess which one- said 'no we don't want reference to that'," he added, reported PTI.

Also Read: Rajnath Singh refuses to sign SCO document for skipping mention of Pak-backed terrorism

SCO runs by unanimity

Jaishankar also said that the SCO runs by unanimity, but when one country said it would not accept any mention of terrorism, Singh communicated that the outcome document was not acceptable to India.

His comments come a day after Singh refused to sign the outcome document at the SCO summit as it did not explicitly address the issue of Pakistan-backed cross-border terrorism.

According to people familiar with the matter, there was no clearly defined approach to combating terrorism in the outcome document.

Also Read: MEA says lack of consensus on terrorism led to India not signing the joint SCO statement

What Rajnath said

The Defence Minister said in his address that there should be “no double standards” in fighting terrorism. He also urged SCO member nations not to hesitate in criticising nations that are funding and supporting terror.

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal on Thursday said that the joint statement could not be signed due to a lack of consensus, particularly on the issue of terrorism. He also said that India demanded that the issue be prominently mentioned in the outcome document, but a certain country opposed it.

With agency inputs