The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in its Moscow Declaration, following the 20th SCO summit in which PM Narendra Modi participated on Tuesday, emphasised the need to intensify common efforts to prevent and suppress the spread of terrorist, separatist and extremist ideologies.

The Declaration also said SCO will work in keeping with the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and non-interference in internal affairs of other states.

It said that the memberstates were convinced that “promotion of extremist, separatist and terrorist ideas, any information support (sic), propaganda and justification of terrorism” created conditions for the spread of radical sentiments and recruitment of supporters by terrorist organisations.

“The member-states advocate consistent deepening of counter-terrorism cooperation between the SCO and UN, including in the implementation of projects of technical assistance to the SCO member-states at their request from the relevant UN departments. The Parties call for the early adoption by consensus of a comprehensive convention against international terrorism,” said the Declaration.

India has used SCO to voice its concerns over crossborder terrorism and Modi had again taken up the issue in his address to the virtual summit. Modi had also slammed Pakistan for using SCO to raise the Kashmir issue.

The Declaration also underlined the significance of sovereignty and territorial integrity. Modi had asked for member-states in his address at the virtual summit, which was also attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pakistan PM Imran Khan, to respect these while pursuing connectivity initiatives.

The Declaration said SCO will work to further increase its contribution to ensuring “peace and security, the settlement of international and regional conflicts exclusively by political and diplomatic means, proceeding from the principles of equality, respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity and non-interference in internal affairs of states, refusal to use force or the threat of its use”.

— report in Times of India, Nov 12, 2020

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