Jaishankar urges SCO to take firm stance on terrorism, flags Pahalgam attack at Tianjin meet

External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on July 15 highlighted the founding objectives of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) at the Council of Foreign Ministers’ (CFM) meeting in Tianjin, China, and urged member states to take an “uncompromising position” against terrorism while staying true to the organisation’s principles.Jaishankar stated that the three evils SCO was founded to combat are terrorism, separatism, and extremism. “Not surprisingly, they often occur together,” he said on X (formerly Twitter).
He added that India witnessed a “graphic example” in the terrorist attack in Pahalgam on April 22, 2025, which was deliberately conducted to undermine the tourism economy of Jammu and Kashmir “while sowing a religious divide”. The attack was condemned by the United Nations Security Council, which urged the need to “hold perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of the reprehensible act of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice”.
“We have since done exactly that and will continue doing so. It is imperative that the SCO, to remain true to its founding objectives, take an uncompromising position on this challenge (of terrorism),” Jaishankar said.

Participated in the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers Meeting this evening in Tianjin.

Highlighted that:➡️ We meet at a time of considerable disorder in the international system. In the last few years, we have seen more conflicts, competition and coercion. Economic… pic.twitter.com/w8XKZ4FLe2

– Dr. S. jaishankar (@drsjaishankar) July 15, 2025

He also highlighted the “disorder in the international system” with growing conflicts, competition, coercion, and economic instability, and urged for the mitigation of these challenges.”The challenge before us is to stabilise the global order, de-risk various dimensions and through it all, address longstanding challenges that threaten our collective interests,” he said.

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The Foreign Minister also called for regional stability by addressing concerns related to Afghanistan. “Afghanistan has been long on the SCO agenda. The compulsions of regional stability are buttressed by our longstanding concern for the well-being of the Afghan people. The international community, particularly SCO members, must therefore step up with development assistance. India, for its part, will certainly do so.”

On the sidelines of the SCO Summit in Tianjin, Jaishankar also met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi. Details of the meetings are awaited.

The SCO FM meeting is significant for India as the organisation did not mention the Pahalgam terror attack in its earlier joint statement by defence ministers, leading to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh refusing to sign it.

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