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Updated: Nov 03, 2019 01:56 IST

Union defence minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday called for strengthening the existing international laws to combat terrorism “without exceptions or double standards”.

Addressing the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit meeting in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Singh said: “Terrorism continues to disrupt societies and undermine developmental endeavours. The only way to fight this scourge is to strengthen and implement, without exceptions or double standards, all existing international laws and mechanisms to combat terrorists and their enablers.”

The defence minister, who is on a three-day visit to Uzbekistan to represent India at the meeting of the SCO’s Council of Heads of Government (CHG), also congratulated Russia for successfully holding the SCO joint military exercise ‘CENTER 2019’ in Orenburg aimed at evolving drills of the participating armies in the fight against international terrorism.He urged the SCO to work together in defeating challenges like terrorism, climate change, endemic poverty, under development, pandemics and inequality, a statement said.

Laying emphasis on economic cooperation, the defence minister said: “Economic cooperation is the foundation of cementing the future of our people and ensuring them a better life. It is of critical importance to us,” Singh told the gathered leaders in Tashkent.

He said unilateralism and protectionism had not worked. “In this context, India remains committed to a transparent, rules-based, open, inclusive and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organisation at its centre.”

Highlighting the ‘Make in India’ programme, Singh invited SCO countries to enter into collaborative joint ventures in India.

“We strongly support the initiative to facilitate cooperation among small and medium-sized enterprises within the SCO. Food industry is another potential area of collaboration. SCO members can work together for technology and investment support to food processing and put in a supporting logistics chain,” he said.

The SCO comprises eight member-states, India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

Later, addressing the Indian diaspora, Singh said India was on the right path to becoming the third-largest economy in the world by 2030. “I want to assure you all that India is heading forward at a quick pace. We are a USD 2.7 trillion economy today, the double of what we were four and a half years back. By 2025-26, the size of our economy will be USD 5 trillion.”