Pakistan projects Kashmir, Junagadh as their territory in SCO meet; Doval walks out

18:53 September 15

Pakistani NSA deliberately projected a fictitious map

Hyderabad: After Pakistan projected a 'fictitious' map which includes Kashmir as an integral part of Islamabad, the Indian delegates including National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval walked out of a virtual meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. The virtual meeting was chaired by Russia.

Pakistan’s representative showed a new political map that showed Kashmir and Junagadh as part of its territory.

“After consultation with the host, the Indian side left the meeting in protest at that juncture,” admitted MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava.

The MEA said the Pakistani NSA had "deliberately projected a fictitious map" that Pakistan has recently been propagating.  "As was to be expected, Pakistan then went on to present a misleading view of this meeting," added Srivastava.

Government sources said the Pakistani action was 'blatant violation' of the SCO charter and against all its established norms of safeguarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of SCO member states. 

They said the Indian side issued its strong objection to the use of the illegal map by Pakistan and even the Russian side tried very hard to persuade the Pakistani representative not to do so. 

Pakistan was represented at the meet by Moeed W Yusuf, Special Assistant to the prime minister on national security.

Nikolai Patrushev, the Secretary of the National Security Council of Russia, conveyed that he was personally very grateful to Indian NSA Ajit Doval for attending the meet, the sources said.

They said Russia does not support what Pakistan has done and hopes that Pakistan's 'provocative' act will not affect India's participation in SCO and not cast any shadow on Patrushev's warm personal relationship with the Indian NSA for whom he said he has the 'highest regard'. 

Both India and Pakistan are members of the SCO, an influential regional grouping.

The SCO, seen as a counterweight to NATO, has emerged as one of the largest trans-regional international organisations which accounts for almost 44 per cent of the world population stretching from the Arctic Ocean to the Indian Ocean and from the Pacific Ocean to the Baltic Sea. 

(With inputs from PTI)