Terrorism Cannot Be Anyone’s Strategic Asset: Modiji’s Message to the SCO in Bishkek

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday told the 26th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit that terrorism cannot be treated as a strategic asset and that the grouping must reject double standards in fighting it. He spoke at the Council of Heads of State meeting in Bishkek, with Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in the same hall, along with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Kyrgyzstan’s Sadyr Japarov hosted the summit as chair. Pakistan is due to take over the SCO chairship after this meeting.

Modiji did not name any country. Many reports still read the passage against Pakistan’s record on groups that operate from its soil. The language followed a line he has used before. At last year’s SCO summit in Tianjin he had called the Pahalgam attack the most heinous face of terrorism and said double standards were unacceptable. In Bishkek he widened the argument from single attacks to the system that keeps them going.

PM Modi made the remarks at the SCO Summit in the presence of Pak's Shehbaz Sharif and other members. (Reuters Photo) | India Today

From incidents to the ecosystem

Terrorism, he said, remains a grave challenge to humanity. Counter-terror work cannot stay trapped in an action-and-reaction cycle. The grouping must dismantle the whole network: financing, recruitment, radicalisation and safe havens. Members should speak with one voice. Countries that use terrorism as an instrument of policy, or that shelter and support terrorists, must be told that terror cannot be anyone’s strategic asset.

He placed that demand inside a larger security frame. In an interconnected world, he said, the perimeter of security has widened. The crisis in West Asia has shown that a war in one region does not stay there. It hits energy security, maritime trade and supply chains. Countries of the Global South carry the heaviest cost. That is why India keeps arguing that tensions and wars should be settled through dialogue and diplomacy, not on the battlefield. The point had extra weight in a room that included Iran’s president, whom Modiji had met the day before as fighting around the Strait of Hormuz flared again.

He also tied Eurasian peace to Afghanistan, calling for continued development assistance and humanitarian support for the Afghan people. Drug trafficking, he said, is not merely crime. It is a threat to the young and to regional security. SCO centres being built to handle security threats, organised crime, information security and narcotics should become tools of real coordination and timely action, not empty structures. Cooperation against narcotics and a programme against drug addiction through 2030 were among the outcomes listed around the summit.

Security, connectivity and opportunity

Modiji returned to three pillars he had set out at the previous summit: Security, Connectivity and Opportunity. The SCO, he said, has spent twenty-five years building a habit of dialogue across Eurasia. The next twenty-five should turn that foundation into measurable results. He thanked President Japarov for the welcome and called the anniversary a moment to move from vision to outcomes.

On connectivity he was supportive and conditional in the same breath. India backs efforts that link markets, ease trade and open new paths to development. Those efforts must respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of every country, which he called the core spirit of the SCO Charter. Indian reporting treated that caveat as a restatement of New Delhi’s objection to the Belt and Road Initiative, part of which runs through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. He added that connectivity should also mean simpler customs, digital documentation and better logistics, not only roads, railways and air corridors.

Opportunity, the third pillar, meant benefits that reach people directly. The grouping’s greatest asset, he said, is the bond among its peoples. For India the SCO is a confluence of civilisations, cultures and ideas. People-to-people ties should stay at the centre of the next quarter-century. Success should be judged by chances created for the young, for entrepreneurs and for farmers, and by the effect on ordinary lives. He also called for wider youth, scientific, entrepreneurial and civilisational exchanges.

The hall around the speech

The traditional family photograph came first. Modiji was seen shaking hands and speaking briefly with Xi, and exchanging words with Putin. Sharif approached Putin after the picture. A bilateral meeting with Xi during this visit was described as unlikely. Modiji had already held talks with Pezeshkian and Putin on Monday.

The speech therefore did three jobs at once. It restated India’s counter-terror line in front of Pakistan’s prime minister. It repeated the sovereignty test for regional infrastructure in front of China. And it tied West Asia’s war to energy and shipping costs paid by the Global South, in front of Iran. None of that required new doctrine. It required saying the same doctrine in a hall where all three files sat in one row.

The MGMM Outlook 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in Bishkek reinforced India’s consistent position that terrorism must never be used as a strategic or geopolitical tool. His call for eliminating terror financing, radicalisation, recruitment networks, and safe havens reflected a broader vision of collective security, urging SCO member states to reject double standards and strengthen genuine cooperation against threats that affect regional and global stability.

The speech also highlighted India’s approach to a secure and interconnected Eurasia, where connectivity is built on respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, and where economic progress benefits ordinary citizens through better trade, logistics, innovation, and people-to-people exchanges. By linking regional peace with dialogue, humanitarian cooperation, and sustainable development, India presented the SCO as a platform capable of delivering practical outcomes that promote stability, prosperity, and shared growth across the Global South.

(Sources: India Today, Times of India, Business Standard)