Venkaiah Naidu restates India’s position on terrorism, transparency in trade at SCO meet

Vice President Venkaiah Naidu in a veiled attack on Pakistan during a virtual meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization head (SCO) Council of Heads of Government meeting on Monday, hit out at the countries which continue to use terrorism as an instrument of state policy.

New Delhi: Addressing a virtual meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization head (SCO) Council of Heads of Government meeting on Monday, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu hit out at the countries which continue to use terrorism as an instrument of state policy.

Though the Vice President did not name Pakistan in his remarks during the meeting, the reference was clear.

The Vice President said India condemns terrorism in all its manifestation. “The most important challenge faced by us is terrorism, particularly cross-border terrorism. We are particularly concerned about states that leverage terrorism as an instrument of their state policy”, Naidu stated.

Therefore chairing the meeting, the Vice President stressed the collective need to combat “scourge of terrorism”.

Again while not choosing a name, the Vice President lambasted Pakistan for raking up bilateral issues more particularly the Kashmir issue during the past SCO meets.

“It is unfortunate to note that there had been attempts to deliberately bring bilateral issues into SCO and blatantly violate well-established principles and norms of SCO charter. Such acts are counterproductive to the spirit of consensus that defined SCO,” he stated.

An expert opines that Terrorism has now become a ‘National mantra’ for India.

Speaking to ETV Bharat, Retired Army General Ashok K Mehta said, “There is no such conference that is held; where India participates, the word terrorism does not appear. The main target for that is Pakistan. India has launched an obsessive war against Pakistan on the question of terrorism”.

“In any case for all the member countries of SCO, terrorism is also their main concern, whether it is China or Russia or the four Central Asian States. They are all concerned about terrorism emanating from Afghanistan. Afghanistan is an observer country on the SCO, so one of the principal charter of the SCO and why it was started in the first place was the security aspect of terrorism that principally emanate from Afghanistan which has some 40-50 terrorist groups mainly associated with Al-Qaeda,” he points out.

At one stage, maximum numbers of terrorist groups were operating from Afghanistan, the number of which has reduced to mainly Al-Qaeda related Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and the Al-Qaeda and its associates like the Haqqani Network that operates from there. But as far as the map is concerned, it is obvious that it is Afghanistan, which is contagious to the Central Asian States and Central Asian States are the hub of the SCO, he added.

Commenting on India chairing the SCO summit today, Mehta said, “India is in an organization which has Russia and China in it. This is like any organization which will have Turkey and Greece in it. They are enemies. Similarly, China and India are adversaries turned enemies and there is Pakistan in SCO. So India is in the uncomfortable position of being faced with two of its border enemies in SCO. This is the point of discomfiture for India, but it is better to be ‘in the camp’ and know what is going on then to be ‘outside the camp’ to be left out.”

Further, without naming China, Naidu said that for trade to be fair, all the members should be transparent.

“For trade to play its part in the recovery process, all the partners must be trustworthy and transparent. It is trust and transparency that determines the sustainability of our global trade and nations must demonstrate their compliance with multilateral rules of trade to remain a part of the system”, he said.

Pertinently, it is for the first time that India is chairing a high-level meeting of SCO since it gained full membership.

“Relations between India and the SCO region have flourished uninterrupted for thousands of years. By 2025, India's GDP is expected to reach 5 trillion. It will be the youngest nation with an average age of 29 years,” Naidu said in his address.

Moreover, the Vice President while emphasizing on India’s initiative to create resilient supply chains and the need to be self-reliant said, “We have launched a new economic strategy: Aatmanirbhar Bharat, self-reliant India.

This is the time to bring much- needed reforms to our global institutions, including WHO. It understands the need for reciprocity, transparency in the context of trade,” he added.

The VP highlighted India’s fight against the coronavirus pandemic, especially the resilience shown in ensuring economic stability.

“India has bravely fought the global pandemic and has shown remarkable resilience in fighting the virus as well as ensuring economic stability. India has kept its COVID-19 death rate at the lowest level in the world. India's efforts have found global recognition,” he noted.

“During the chairmanship of our tenure, we've proposed to create a special working group on start-ups and innovations. India has created a robust dynamic environment for start-ups. India made an offer to annually host special working group for start-ups,” he reiterated.

It is also to be noted that India will host an SCO Food Festival next year to commemorate the 20th anniversary of SCO.

The Prime Ministers from the SCO Member State of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan also attended the SCO meeting.

Pakistan was represented by the Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs. Apart from the SCO Member States, the four observers of States of SCO including the President of Afghanistan, the First Vice President of Iran, the Prime Minister of Belarus and the Deputy Prime Minister of Mongolia.

Earlier, the Ministry of External Affairs in a statement said India assumed the Chairmanship of the SCO Council of Heads of Government on 2nd Nov 2019 as per rotation from the previous chair-Uzbekistan and will complete its year-long tenure by hosting the 19th session of the SCO Council of Heads of Government.

India while chairing the SCO Council of Heads of Government has particularly focused on creating three new pillars of cooperation: Startups and Innovation, Science and Technology and Traditional Medicine and also proposed many other concrete initiatives.