Indian PM protests against move to bring bilateral issues into SCO

Our Correspondent
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that India has been closely sticking to the charter of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and raised concerns over attempts to bring in bilateral issues into the agenda of the eight-nation regional grouping that primarily focuses on security and defence issues.

“There is an effort to bring in bilateral issues into the SCO agenda… That is against the spirit of the charter of the SCO. India has always been resolute in working in sync with principles laid out in the SCO charter,” Mr. Modi said in a virtual summit of the SCO, where Chinese President Xi Jinping was also in attendance.

“India believes that to enhance connectivity it is important that we move forward while respecting one another’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Mr. Modi said at his first meeting of the SCO after border tensions in eastern Ladakh escalated to a violent face-off in June, when 20 soldiers gave their lives for India and over 40 Chinese troops were killed or injured.

“In this difficult time of unprecedented epidemic, India’s pharma industry sent essential medicines to over 150 nations,” Mr. Modi said at the summit that deals with all the main areas of the activity of the SCO, including political, security, trade, economic and cultural issues.

Every annual meeting of the SCO heads of state ends with a declaration that contains the joint position of member states on issues of global and regional significance.