India will continue pursuit to bring Pahalgam attackers to justice: Jaishankar cites UNSC at SCO

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has reasserted India’s stance on terrorism at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) foreign ministers’ meeting, where he said that the Pahalgam attack was carried out to disrupt Jammu and Kashmir’s booming tourism economy and create religious differences.

Jaishankar recalled the UNSC’s strong condemnation of the attack in April that killed 26 people and called on the SCO to take an “uncompromised” position against terrorism, adding that India is making efforts to bring the terrorists involved in the attack to justice.

In an address at the SCO foreign ministers meeting in this Chinese city, Jaishankar said India will continue to positively approach new ideas and proposals, asserting that such cooperation must be based on “mutual respect”, “sovereign equality” and under “territorial integrity and sovereignty” of member states.

The remarks came against the backdrop of growing global criticism of China’s mega-connectivity project, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), as it was perceived to show disregard for the sovereignty of nations and lack transparency.

Jaishankar reminded the bloc’s motto to combat the three evils of terrorism, separatism and extremism. He said, “Not surprisingly, they often occur together. Recently, we in India witnessed a graphic example in the terrorist attack in Pahalgam on April 22. It was deliberately conducted to undermine the tourism economy of Jammu & Kashmir, while sowing a religious divide.”

Meanwhile, the external affairs minister also held separate meetings with his Russian and Chinese counterparts, Sergei Lavrov and Wang Yi, with a focus on furthering bilateral cooperation.

“Reviewed our bilateral cooperation and global developments with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia in Tianjin this afternoon,” Jaishankar said in a social media post.

It is understood that the two foreign ministers also deliberated on the evolving regional security scenario, including the situation in West Asia.

Jaishankar also met Chinese President Xi Jinping, where he apprised the leader of the recent development of our bilateral ties.

With inputs from agencies

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