India eyes hard-hitting SCO declaration on terrorism as Tianjin summit nears

India on Tuesday said it was working with member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to ensure that the declaration at the upcoming summit in Tianjin carried a clear and unequivocal condemnation of terrorism, including cross-border terrorism.

“The text is under finalisation. We are working with other members and partners to ensure a reiteration of the strong condemnation of terrorism, including cross-border terrorism,” MEA Secretary (West) Tanmaya Lal said at a briefing.

His remarks come ahead of PM Narendra Modi’s four-day visit to Japan and China beginning August 29, when he will first attend the 15th India-Japan Annual Summit and later participate in the SCO summit in Tianjin. This will be Modi’s eighth visit to Japan and his first meeting with new Japanese PM Shigeru Ishiba.

Secretary Lal recalled that combating terrorism, separatism and extremism was one of the founding objectives of the SCO and underlined that the challenge continued to threaten regional peace and stability. Past SCO declarations, including the one adopted during India’s presidency at the 23rd summit, had “unequivocally denounced terrorism”, he said, expressing confidence that the Tianjin summit would do the same.

India has consistently highlighted the issue of cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan, pressing the SCO to strengthen cooperation on security and counterterrorism mechanisms. During India’s presidency last year, the SCO adopted a joint statement on cooperation to counter radicalisation leading to separatism, extremism and terrorism.

On the sidelines of the SCO summit, Modi is also expected to hold a series of bilateral meetings with other global leaders that is most likely to include Russian President Putin. “...there will be a number of bilateral meetings that will be organised on the sidelines. We are still working through the finalisation of those meetings,” Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said.