WEBDESK: In a remarkable display of diplomatic failure, India found itself isolated and exposed at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Defence Ministers’ Meeting after it failed to force its anti-Pakistan narrative into the joint communique.
Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has once again attempted to cast Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism, yet the SCO member states have refused to give credence to the politicised language used by India.
With members rejecting this discourse wholesale, New Delhi finds itself struggling to explain why it diplomatically embarrassed itself.
According to Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, Rajnath Singh refused to endorse the outcome document after a key country, widely believed to be Pakistan: objected to the inclusion of language on terrorism.
“Rajnathji said that if there is no mention of terrorism, then we will not accept that statement,” Jaishankar admitted. But instead of standing as a moral high ground, this refusal only highlighted India’s failure to rally a single SCO ally to its cause.
The SCO, a multilateral forum built on consensus and cooperation, refused to be hijacked by India’s hostile agenda.
Former Indian Minister of External Affairs and Finance expressed in an X post:
The fact that India could not secure a single line linking Pakistan to terrorism, despite its aggressive lobbying, marks a significant diplomatic victory for Islamabad. In contrast, India’s theatrical walkout without signing the joint statement came across as a move of frustration, not principle.
In the wake of the recent Pahalgam incident, India had tried to push what it called “Operation Sindoor” as proof of Pakistan’s involvement in cross-border terrorism.
Yet none of the SCO members, neither China, Russia, or Iran, backed India’s claims or acknowledged the operation as anything more than political posturing.
Although New Delhi was also trying to make use of the SCO, a platform that it has deliberately exploited as just another pulpit where it finds facilities to discuss its long-winded unilateral blame game, its baselessness and one-sided discourse failed to echo at the room.
The delegation sent by Pakistan, headed by the Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, refrained from escalating the session, standing their ground and showing maturity in response to India overstepping its boundaries.
Not only has this humiliated India before the international community, but it has been another stinging blow to Prime Minister Modi and his constant boasts of massive global influence and supremacy on the international stage.
Despite all the bluster of India, it was Pakistan who achieved more the high ground on the diplomatic front, strongly supported by the norm of multilateralism, and not by the baggage of vain Rhetoric.
Read more: Pakistan clinches diplomatic victory as India’s SCO allegations collapse
