With an eye on Pak & China, Modi talks tough at SCO summit

Agencies, NT Bureau

New Delhi: Food, fuel and fertiliser crisis is a big challenge for all the countries in the world surrounded by controversies, tensions and epidemics and there must be united efforts to deal with it, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday.

In his opening remarks at the virtual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), Modi also said that some countries use cross-border terrorism as an instrument of their policy and the grouping must not hesitate to criticise them.

The SCO has never been the platform for airing bilateral issues, but national agendas were certainly highlighted in the public remarks of leaders at their annual meeting on Tuesday.

While the Indian PM spoke about countering terrorism, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif asserted that religious minorities were being marginalised by some states, Russian President Vladimir Putin raised the Ukraine war and Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated the position against ‘camps’ in geopolitics.

Terrorism has become a threat to regional and global peace, Modi said, calling for expanding mutual cooperation to deal with terror financing as well.

Pakistan Prime Minister Sharif also took on India when he asserted that “diplomatic point-scoring must be avoided by all countries and said that all forms of terrorism, including State terrorism, must be condemned”.

"We have to fight together against terrorism that may be in any form and any manifestation," Modi said. India's concerns and expectations regarding Afghanistan are similar to those of most SCO countries, he said.

The prime minister said the SCO has emerged as a key platform for peace, prosperity and development for Eurasia.