Venkaiah address at SCO summit: ‘Most important challenge facing region is terrorism’

Addressing a virtual meet of the council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) heads of government, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu mentioned cross-border terrorism and called for combating the menace under a collective approach. “We are particularly concerned about states that leverage terrorism as an instrument of state policy,” Naidu said, in a clear reference to Pakistan. “The most important challenge faced by us is terrorism, particularly cross-border terrorism.”

Naidu said the elimination of the threat of terrorism will help the region realise its true potential.

In another reference to Pakistan, the Vice-President said it is unfortunate that there were attempts to deliberately bring bilateral issues into the SCO, describing it as a blatant violation of principles and norms of the charter of the grouping.

In September, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval walked out of a virtual meeting of top SCO security officials after the Pakistani representative projected a map that inaccurately depicted Kashmir. India had slammed Pakistan for the “blatant disregard” to the norms of the meeting.