New Delhi: India’s Ajit Doval Tuesday stormed out of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s virtual meeting of national security advisors after Pakistan showed a “fictitious” map violating the agenda of the gathering.
During the meeting, which was chaired by Russia, Pakistan projected the new political map that the Imran Khan government released on 4 August, claiming all of Jammu and Kashmir and some parts of Gujarat as Pakistani territory.
“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,” said Anurag Srivastava, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs.
“After consultation with the host, the Indian side left the meeting in protest at that juncture. As was to be expected, Pakistan then went on to present a misleading view of this meeting,” Srivastava added.
According to Indian government sources, Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the National Security Council of Russia, stated that his country “does not support” what Pakistan did, and hoped that its “provocative act will not affect India’s participation in SCO and definitely not cast any shadow on Patrushev’s warm personal relationship for NSA for whom he has the highest regard”.
What happened at the meeting?
Pakistan used the map as its backdrop during the virtual meeting, which upset NSA Doval. He proposed to leave the meeting, because it depicted “sovereign Indian territories as part of Pakistan”.
Sources said after India issued its “strong objection” to the use of the controversial and “illegal” map by Pakistan, the Russian side, as the chair, tried “very hard” to persuade Pakistan not to do so.
Sources also said Pakistan’s act was a “blatant violation” of the SCO charter, and against all its established norms of safeguarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of member states.
India and Pakistan both became full-time members of the SCO in 2017.
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