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.
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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.
