India has refused to sign a joint statement at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in China as it did not reflect the country's concerns on terrorism, India's foreign ministry has said. Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Thursday that India's desire for its concerns to be reflected was "not acceptable to one particular country". While he did not share more details, Indian media reported that Delhi refused to sign the statement after it omitted the Pahalgam attack, a deadly militant attack that killed 26 tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir. India has blamed its neighbour, Pakistan for sheltering a militant group it blames for the attack. Pakistan has rejected the allegations. China, Russia and four Central Asian countries formed the SCO in 2001 as a countermeasure to limit the influence of the West in the region. India and Pakistan joined in 2017. The latest signing ceremony took place during the SCO defence ministers' meeting in China, held ahead of the leaders' annual summit this autumn. According to media reports, India perceived the joint statement as being "pro-Pakistan" after it omitted the Pahalgam attack but mentioned militant activities in Balochistan. Pakistan has accused India of backing the Balochistan freedom movement, which India denies. After the meeting, India's Defence Minister Rajnath Singh urged the SCO to hold the perpetrators of cross-border terrorism accountable, though he didn't explicitly mention Pakistan. "Some countries use cross-border terrorism as an instrument of policy and provide shelter to terrorists. There should be no place for such double standards. SCO should not hesitate to criticise such nations," he said in a statement. India and Pakistan have fought three wars over Kashmir, which they claim to own in full but administer in parts. The Pahalgam attack in April brought the two nuclear-armed countries to the brink of another war. In May, India launched a series of airstrikes, targeting sites it called "terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir". Pakistan denied the claim that these were terror camps and also responded by firing missiles and deploying drones into Indian territory. The hostilities between the two countries continued until 10 May when US President Donald Trump announced that India and Pakistan had agreed to a "full and immediate ceasefire", brokered by the US. India has, however, consistently denied any intervention by the US. — BBC
