Singh Calls for United Efforts to Knock Down Terror
PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh, while addressing the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, has called for greater global cooperation to trounce the “spectre of terrorism” and bring reforms to international monetary institutions.
“The spectre of terrorism, extremist ideologies and illicit drug trafficking haunts our region. Terrorist crimes committed today are transnational in nature,” Manmohan Singh told leaders of SCO at Hotel Hyatt Regency in Russia.
On his first visit abroad since taking over as PM for the second time, Singh said that no country is immune from the aforementioned menace and that it is imperative that everybody genuinely cooperates with one another and on global scale to resolutely defeat international terrorism.
It may be mentioned that India, along with Iran, Pakistan and Mongolia, are observer at the summit of the SCO, which is a six-nation regional grouping dominated by Russia and China that also includes Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
In the summit, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev are participating.
Singh, referring to instability and surge in Taliban-led violence, said that India is firmly committed to contributing to international endeavours towards the economic reconstruction of Afghanistan.
This is the first SCO summit at which an Indian prime minister is taking part since the SCO leaders decided to include observer countries in full-format discussions at their last summit in Dushanbe.
Revealing his vision of regional integration and prosperity, Singh emphasized the greater economic connectivity and more cooperation among SCO members and observers to address issues relating to sustainable development and the global financial meltdown.
“We believe that with the resources available with us, the SCO and India can mutually reinforce each other’s efforts towards the economic emancipation of our region,” Manmohan Singh said while offering to share India’s development experience.
He also underlined the need for closer cooperation in the fields of energy and food security, and infrastructure development.
The Prime Minister exhorted the SCO to seize the global financial crisis and concert it into an opportunity for “greater economic cooperation between the members of the SCO and India” and pressed for reform of the institutions of global governance, including financial institutions, to bring them in tune with “present and emerging economic realities.”
