The Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) convened in Goa on May 5 to examine concerns and difficulties in the area. Five members of the Indian army were slain by the People’s Anti-Fascists Front (PAF), a branch of the Pakistan-sponsored Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), on the same day in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district. Dr. S. Jaishankar, the minister of external affairs, spoke out against the persistent threat of terrorism supported by Pakistan in the area and asked the SCO member states to guarantee that funding for terrorist organizations be “ceased and blocked without distinction.” He also reminded the member nations that one of the main responsibilities enshrined in Article 1 of the SCO Charter since 1998 is to fight terrorism and narcoterrorism. The SCO area is more prone to armed conflict as a result of transnational drug trafficking and the use of terrorism by certain nations for geopolitical and geostrategic ends.
