NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday walked out of a virtual meeting of the National Security Advisers (NSAs) of the SCO in protest against Pakistan’s depiction of sovereign Indian territories in its “fictitious” map. New Delhi said Islamabad’s move was in “blatant disregard to host Russia’s advisory”.
“At the meeting of National Security Advisers of member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation today, hosted by the Chair of the SCO (Russia), the Pakistani NSA deliberately projected a fictitious map that Pakistan has recently been propagating. This was in blatant disregard to the advisory by the host against it and in violation of the norms of the meeting.
After consultation with the host, the Indian side left the meeting in protest at that juncture. Pakistan then went on to present a misleading view of this meeting,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said. On August 4, Pakistan had released a new political map depicting the union territories of J&K, Ladakh and parts of Gujarat to be its territories.
India had termed the move to be without any legal basis and an exercise in political absurdity. Commenting on the walkout, government sources said that Islamabad’s move was provocative and added that Moscow in, anyway, does not support it.
“Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the National Security Council of the Russian Federation, has conveyed that Russia does not support what Pakistan has done. Russia hopes Pakistan’s provocative act will not affect India’s participation in SCO and not cast any shadow on Patrushev’s warm ties with NSA Ajit Doval. Patrushev hopes to see the NSA at forthcoming events,” sources said.
Depicting J&K, Ladakh as Pakistan territories
On August 4, Pakistan had released a new political map depicting the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and parts of Gujarat to be its territories. India had termed the move to be without any legal basis and an exercise in political absurdity.