"If activities across borders are characterized by terrorism, extremism and separatism, they are hardly likely to encourage trade, energy flows, connectivity and people-to-people exchanges in parallel," External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar's remarks in Islamabad at the SCO Summit.
Dr Jaishankar said cooperation must be based on mutual respect and sovereign equality.
"It should recognize territorial integrity and sovereignty. It must be built on genuine partnerships, not unilateral agendas.
It cannot progress if we cherry-pick global practices, especially of trade and transit. But most of all, our endeavours will progress only when our commitment to the Charter remains firm," he said.
"It is axiomatic that development and growth requires peace and stability. And as the Charter spelt out, this means being firm and uncompromising in countering the ‘three evils’."
He stated that the SCO has three goals - need to strengthen mutual trust, friendship and good neighbourliness.
"It is to develop multi-faceted cooperation, especially of a regional nature. It is to be a positive force in terms of balanced growth, integration and conflict prevention. The Charter was equally clear what the key challenges were. And these were primarily three, that the SCO was committed to combatting: one, terrorism; two, separatism; and three, extremism," he said.
Dr Jaishankar said: "If we fast-forward from the inception of the Charter to the situation today, these goals and these tasks are even more crucial. It is, therefore, essential that we have an honest conversation.
If trust is lacking or cooperation inadequate, if friendship has fallen short and good neighbourliness is missing somewhere, there are surely reasons to introspect and causes to address.
"Equally, it is only when we reaffirm our commitment most sincerely to the Charter that we can fully realize the benefits of cooperation and integration that it envisages," he said.
ends
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