At the SCO summit, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar condemned Pakistan by saying that cross-border extremism and separatism hamper bilateral trade and relations.
Speaking at the SCO summit, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said cross-border activities between nations characterized by extremism and separatism were hardly likely to help bilateral trade, relations, and other activities on Wednesday.
In a veiled jibe at Pakistan, he said such activities were hardly likely to improve bilateral trade, relations, and other activities.
“It is axiomatic that development and growth require peace and stability. And since the Charter spelled out, this means firm and uncompromising stand against the three evils.”.
Jaishankar said at the two-day summit in Islamabad that if activities across borders are characterized by terrorism, extremism, and separatism, it is hardly likely to encourage trade, energy flows, connectivity, and people-to-people exchanges in parallel.
The External Affairs Minister pointed out that “the SCO’s ‘primordial aim of combating terrorism, separatism, and extremism is even more important in the current times.’
He said globalization and rebalancing are today’s realities, and the SCO countries had to move this forward.
Honest dialogue, mutual trust, neighborly Cooperation, and reaffirmed commitment to the SCO Charter, he averred.
Delivering India’s national statement at the SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting, the minister said, “Cooperation must be based on mutual respect and sovereign equality, recognize territorial integrity and sovereignty, and be built on genuine partnerships, not unilateral agendas.
SCO cannot progress if we cherry-pick global practices, especially of trade and transit”.
