India, Pakistan want collective action to curb terrorism at SCO

India and Pakistan on Tuesday struck a rare united stand to forge collective action to curb terrorism at the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) meeting in China where New Delhi also called on Islamabad to end cross border terrorism and external interference in Afghanistan.

“Many of the problems confronting our region, especially the rising tide of cross-border terrorism and extremism, require trans-national solutions,” Minister of State for External Affairs Gen VK Singh said while speaking at the SCO heads of government meeting in central China’s Zhengzhou city.

“International terrorism has emerged as the most serious threat to our peaceful and pluralistic societies. Terrorism threatens to derail our developmental aspirations and undermine our very way of life,” Singh said as he sought close cooperation among SCO member states and zero tolerance towards terrorism to curb the menace. “Political convenience can no longer provide an alibi for backing terrorist groups ideologically, financially or through material support. Today the world has realised that there are no good terrorists,” he said, in an apparent reference to Pakistan, whose Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was also present. India and Pakistan are observers in the six-member SCO grouping of China, Russia and central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Both India and Pakistan are set to join as regular members of the SCO, which has formally approved their membership in the previous leaders meeting at the Russian city of Ufa.

In a veiled reference to Pakistan, Gen Singh called for an end to external interference in Afghanistan.

“One of our most important goals remains a stable and peaceful Afghanistan free of external interference. This is absolutely essential to advance peace, stability and prosperity in the region,” he said.

In his speech, Sharif asked the SCO members to join forces and develop comprehensive strategies to collectively confront the challenges of extremism and terrorism.

“The security situation around us remains precarious. We are seeing the threat to state sovereignty and territorial integrity. Armed conflicts continue to rage in several parts of the world unleashing forces, which are beyond the control of anyone,” Pakistan’s state-run APP news agency quoted him as saying in his address at the SCO meeting.

Noting that “terrorism remained a serious threat and in fact become even more insidious”, he said militant ideologies needed to be countered. Sharif said the SCO has a special role to play in promoting peace and regional stability.

He also referred to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CEPEC) project over which India has conveyed its protests to China as it goes through the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Sharif said Pakistan supported the one belt and one road initiative of President XI Jinping and remained committed to making CEPEC Project a “resounding success”.