Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Thursday that India's
desire for its concerns to be reflected was "not acceptable to one
particular country".
While
he did not share more details, Indian media reported that Delhi refused to sign
the statement after it omitted the Pahalgam attack, a deadly militant attack that
killed 26 tourists in Indian administered Kashmir.
India has blamed its neighbour, Pakistan for sheltering a
militant group it blames for the attack. Pakistan has rejected the allegations.
China, Russia and four Central Asian countries formed the
SCO in 2001 as a countermeasure to limit the influence of the West in the
region. India and Pakistan joined in 2017.
The latest signing ceremony took place during the SCO
defence ministers' meeting in China, held ahead of the leaders' annual summit
this autumn.
According to media reports, India perceived the joint
statement as being "pro Pakistan" after it omitted the Pahalgam
attack but mentioned militant activities in Baluchistan.
Pakistan
has accused India of backing the Baluchistan freedom movement, which India
denies.
After
the meeting, India's Defence Minister Rajnath Singh urged the SCO to hold the
perpetrators of cross-border terrorism accountable, though he didn't explicitly
mention Pakistan.
"Some countries use cross-border terrorism as an
instrument of policy and provide shelter to terrorists. There should be no
place for such double standards. SCO should not hesitate to criticize such
nations," he said in a statement.
The Pahalgam attack in April brought the two nuclear-armed
countries to the brink of another war.
In May, India launched a series of airstrikes, targeting sites it called
"terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan administered
Kashmir".
Pakistan denied the claim that these were terror camps and
also responded by firing missiles and deploying drones into Indian territory.
The hostilities between the two countries continued until May
10 when President Donald Trump announced that India and Pakistan had agreed to
a "full and immediate ceasefire", brokered by the United States.
India has consistently denied any intervention by the United
States.
