NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated India’s position on reining in terrorism and ensuring that all states respect each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty, while addressing the SCO Heads of State at the 23rd Summit, which was held virtually in Delhi on Tuesday.
"Terrorism has become a major threat to regional and global peace. Dealing with this challenge requires decisive action, we must unite in our fight against terrorism. Some countries use cross-border terrorism as an instrument of their policies, provide shelter to terrorists. SCO should not hesitate to criticise such nations. There should be no place for double standards on such serious matters. We should also take proactive steps to prevent the spread of radicalisation among our youth," he said.
PM Modi also emphasised the importance of the principles of the SCO Charter. "It is essential to uphold the basic principles of the SCO charter, particularly respecting the sovereignty and regional integrity of the member states," he added.
Welcoming Iran as a full member of the SCO, PM Modi said this would improve connectivity as the Chahabar port could be used for enhanced trading activity.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin complimented PM Modi for the SCO chairmanship and also reaffirmed that his country was in a position of strength.
"The Russian people are more consolidated than ever. The unity and high responsibility for the fate of the Fatherland was clearly demonstrated by the Russian political circles and the whole of society in uniting against the attempted armed rebellion," said Putin, adding that Russia’s trade with SCO member states has increased by over one third, or 37 percent, reaching a record high of US$263 billion last year. From January to April this year, it went up by another 35 percent.
Russia and China have enhanced trade in local currencies and would like to see that extended in the group too.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, quoting Rabindranath Tagore, said, "The sea of danger, doubt and denial around man’s little island of certainty challenges him to dare the unknown." Since its founding over 20 years ago, the SCO has withstood the test of the changing international landscape and kept moving in the right direction of promoting solidarity, mutual trust, development and cooperation, he said.
China proposed that the SCO scale up local currency settlement between member states, expand cooperation on sovereign digital currency and promote the establishment of an SCO development bank.
The President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev proposed to develop a unified map of transport connectivity of the SCO states. "This will determine the bottlenecks and gaps and outline priority actions and projects to create a common, integrated transport and transit system," he said.
After the meeting, the leaders signed the New Delhi Declaration and approved the SCO Economic Development Strategy to 2030. The implementation of the SCO Economic Development Strategy will promote regional integration, banking and finance, cooperation in energy and transport and digitisation.
India also proposed that members cooperate on emerging fuels in the energy sector, decarbonization in the transportation sector and digital transformation.
Among reforms in the SCO, India proposed the language platform Bhashini to remove linguistic barriers within the organisation.
The SCO members also signed the Memorandum of Obligation for Belarus' SCO membership, while all participating countries spoke about the situation in Afghanistan.
The SCO represents approximately 40 percent of the world's population and nearly one-third of the global economy. The next chairmanship has been handed over to the President of Kazakhstan.