India, Pakistan take digs at each other at SCO meet

India and Pakistan tacitly took a dig at each other during a meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on Wednesday.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi joined the Foreign Ministers of the six other SCO nations in a video-conference to lay the ground for the next summit of the SCO.

Jaishankar pointed out that while the world was fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic, “some” were still busy spreading other deadly viruses like terrorism and using fake news and doctored videos to divide communities and countries. His comment appeared to be targeted at Pakistan which continued exporting terrorism to India and flouting truce along the Line of Control even during the global fight against the pandemic.

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He underlined that the security challenges the world was facing now were not linked by physical or political boundaries. “Terrorism continues to be the overwhelming threat to security and stability in the SCO region and would require collective action,” said the External Affairs Minister, without directly blaming Pakistan for exporting the menace to India.

Qureshi said that tackling terrorism and extremism must continue to be a priority, but terrorism-related allegations must not be used as a political tool to malign and victimize any country or religion. He also called upon the SCO to reject xenophobic ideologies, including Islamophobia.

The comment by Pakistan Foreign Minister too was apparently targeted at India. He too did not directly name India.

The summit is proposed to take place at Saint Petersburg in Russia in July, although the Covid-19 pandemic cast a shadow of uncertainty over it.

The video-conference was convened and chaired by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The SCO Foreign Ministers discussed the Covid-19 pandemic and coordination of the efforts to deal with its trade, economic and social consequences. They also discussed the situation in Afghanistan and the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of World War II.