India took a strong and uncompromising stance against terrorism at the 44th meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) held in Cholpon Ata, Kyrgyzstan, on September 10, 2025. Leading the Indian delegation, Deputy National Security Adviser T.V. Ravichandran called for holding accountable the “sponsors, organisers, and financiers” of the Pahalgam terror attack of April 22, 2025, in which 26 people — most of them tourists — lost their lives in Jammu and Kashmir’s Baisaran Valley.

His statement resonated with India’s long-standing position that terrorism must be addressed in all its forms and manifestations, without exception or selective approaches. Ravichandran’s intervention stressed that the global fight against terrorism cannot be successful if double standards are allowed to persist, a pointed reference to cross-border support that India has consistently highlighted in regional and multilateral forums.

The Kyrgyzstan-chaired council of RATS SCO witnessed collective condemnation of the Pahalgam attack. Member states reaffirmed their solidarity with India and acknowledged the urgent need to combat terrorism more effectively.

This condemnation was not limited to the regional anti-terrorist forum. Earlier this month, the attack had also been addressed at the 25th SCO Summit in Tianjin, China, where the Tianjin Declaration, issued by the Council of Heads of State on September 1, 2025, explicitly condemned the Pahalgam tragedy. The significance of this inclusion was underlined in government sources, noting that the SCO’s explicit endorsement lent greater international weight to India’s call for collective accountability when dealing with terrorism and its enablers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his participation in the September 1 Tianjin summit, had already placed the Pahalgam incident at the forefront of his intervention, urging the SCO collective to recognize and act against states that perpetrate or harbor cross-border terrorism. His address stressed that there can be no justification for terror, no selective application of norms, and no tolerance for support systems — financial, logistical, or political — that enable deadly attacks. The Prime Minister reminded SCO counterparts that sustained peace, security, and stability form the bedrock of development across Eurasia and beyond, and that terrorism in particular remains one of the gravest threats to regional prosperity.

In line with India’s broader policy orientation within the SCO, Modi also introduced the “Three Pillar” approach — Security, Connectivity, and Opportunity — as the guiding framework for India’s engagement. Under this approach, security gains prime importance as the foundational pillar, directly linked to peace and prosperity, while connectivity and opportunity are seen as complementary enablers for regional integration and sustainable growth. Modi’s remarks emphasised combating terrorist financing networks, countering radicalisation strategies, and ensuring effective intelligence sharing across SCO member states. In doing so, he set a clear link between India’s immediate concern over the Pahalgam attack and the longer-term battle against systemic enablers of terrorism within and beyond the SCO’s operational sphere.

At the Bishkek meeting of RATS, Ravichandran built on the momentum generated by Modi’s Tianjin intervention. He reinforced that mere condemnation is insufficient without accountability and underlined that international institutions must identify, expose, and penalise the actors and states that back such extremist violence. Government sources noted that India views the SCO platform as essential for reinforcing its position, given its regional expanse that includes key powers like Russia, China, and Central Asian states, as well as immediate South Asian rivals. For New Delhi, the endorsement of the Tianjin Declaration by the SCO was a crucial symbolic victory, as it ensured multilateral acknowledgment of terrorism striking Indian soil.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) later confirmed that the SCO discussions extended well beyond immediate counter-terrorism measures, covering Development Strategy, Reform of Global Governance, Peace and Security, Economic and Financial Cooperation, and Sustainable Development. However, India consistently prioritized terrorism within this larger framework. By bringing the Pahalgam assault into sharp focus at multiple levels — from the Council of Heads of State in Tianjin to the Council of RATS in Kyrgyzstan — India has signaled that issues of terrorism and accountability will remain at the forefront of its diplomatic outreach in regional security platforms.

In essence, India utilized the Cholpon Ata meeting to double down on its diplomatic drive against state-sponsored terrorism, embedding the Pahalgam incident as a foundational case for the need to move from condemnation to concrete accountability. Both Modi’s summit-level appeal and Ravichandran’s RATS statement converged on a singular theme: terrorism must be confronted comprehensively, sponsors must be named and shamed, financiers must be cut off, and the international community must not allow selective politics or double standards to undermine the collective response.

Based On ANI Report