Terrorism including cross-border ones must be stopped: Jaishankar tells SCO meet

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar greeted his Pakistan counterpart Bilawal Bhutto Zardari who arrived here on Friday to attend the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers in Goa today.

Zardari is the first Pakistan Foreign Minister to visit India in more than six years with the last being the minister Sartaj Aziz's trip to Amritsar in 2016 to participate in the Heart of Asia conference, Indian Express reported.

Jaishankar reportedly told the SCO today that all forms of terrorism including cross-border one must be stopped.

‘The menace of terrorism continues unabated. We firmly believe that there can be no justification for terrorism and it must be stopped in all its forms and manifestations including cross-border terrorism. Combating terrorism is one of the original mandates of SCO,’ he was quoted as saying.

Adding further, Jaishankar said he was seeking support of member states to ‘make English as the 3rd official language of SCO’ in order to help ‘deeper engagement with English-speaking member states’.

As the chair of SCO, Jaishankar said, India has conducted more than 100 meetings and events which included 15 ministerial level meetings, creating ‘unprecedented engagement with OSC observers and dialogue partners.’

Meanwhile Indian officials were disinclined to hold a meeting between Jaishankar and Bhutto Zardari in the wake of strained relations between neighhours over the last several years.

Bhutto Zardari reportedly said he was happy to be in Goa and lead the Pakistani delegation, adding that he was looking forward to ‘constructive discussions’ with counterparts from ‘friendly countries’.

Bhutto Zardari was received at the Goa airport on Thursday by J P Singh, the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).