Ishaq Dar and Rajnath Singh address SCO meeting in Dushanbe on growth and terrorism

DUSHANBE: The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of Government met in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar represented Pakistan. He said the organisation could play a leading role in digital transformation and sustainable economic growth.

According to Ishaq Dar, Pakistan supports greater investment in agriculture, mining, minerals and IT. He said CPEC offers SCO partners opportunities to speed up their shared journey towards economic integration. He added that energy cooperation and global information security should become an important part of the organisation. He also mentioned that Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif had presented the vision for Pakistan’s SCO presidency.

India was represented by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who is on a two-day official visit to Tajikistan. According to WION, Ishaq Dar was seated opposite him at the meeting. Pakistan’s Foreign Office also released a video showing both at the same table.

Rajnath Singh said there could be no justification for terrorism and that there should be no double standards in dealing with it. In his words, there is no room for those who finance, support or shelter terrorists, and the entire terrorism ecosystem should be dismantled collectively. He said terrorism pushes societies towards extremism and deprives young people of opportunities. According to Bhaskar, he did not name Pakistan or Ishaq Dar in his speech.

According to Swarajya, he backed the approval of the action plan of the SCO Programme of Multilateral Trade and Economic Cooperation for 2026-30. He also welcomed the Bishkek decisions to make the Tashkent Universal Centre and the Dushanbe anti-drug centre permanent bodies.

According to Bhaskar, Rajnath Singh said, without naming anyone, that connectivity projects should respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries and be developed in consultation with the parties concerned. The newspaper linked this to India’s long-standing position on CPEC, part of which passes through Pakistan-administered Kashmir. He also mentioned the Chabahar port and the International North-South Transport Corridor.