Rajnath Singh Says All SCO Members Must Unitedly Fight Terrorism

All members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) must unitedly fight terrorism, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told fellow ministers of the SCO on Friday.

Singh said that all SCO countries have the opportunity to collectively fight terrorism, and it was necessary, particularly now as terrorists were using different tools, like crowd funding and social media. It was important for all SCO countries— Pakistan is a member, as is China— to take action.

Interestingly, the Pakistan representative, Malik Ahmed Khan of the Prime Minister’s Office, said Pakistan was fighting terrorism, raising eyebrows.

Singh added there should be a win-win attitude within the SCO towards prosperity and it should not be a zero sum game. The important issues that the SCO should address were security, economic cooperation, connectivity, unity, environmental protection and respect for sovereignty.

The last point on sovereignty could be a reference to the Galwan incident in east Ladakh in 2020 when Chinese and Indian soldiers were involved in a violent fight.