BEIJING: A day ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers' Meeting (CFM) in Tianjin, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar on Monday stated that the "primary mandate" of the grouping is to "combat terrorism, separatism and extremism".
"Tomorrow, we will be meeting in the format of the SCO, whose primary mandate is to combat terrorism, separatism and extremism. This is a shared concern and India hopes that zero tolerance for terrorism will be strongly upheld," the EAM said in his opening remarks during a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday.
Last month, the SCO Defence Ministers' Meeting held at Qingdao could not adopt a Joint Statement after India's concerns on terrorism did not reflect in the document.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who had attended the meeting, had laid down the broad contours of India's transitional shift in its policy against terrorism and had also called upon the member countries to unite in eliminating the menace for collective safety and security.
"I understand that they could not adopt a Joint Statement. I also understand that member countries could not reach consensus on certain issues and hence the document could not be finalised. On our side, India wanted concerns on terrorism reflected in the document, which was not acceptable to one particular country, and therefore the statement was not adopted," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had said during a regular media briefing held in New Delhi on June 26. (IANS)
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