After Ajit Doval, the National Security Advisor of India walked out of SCO virtual meeting of national security advisors, Russia tried to persuade Pakistan not to use the fictitious map, but Islamabad did not heed the recommendation. India issued its strong objection to the use of this illegal map by Pakistan.

 

The Ministry of External Affairs said that “At the meeting of the national security advisers (NSAs) of member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), hosted by the chair of the SCO (Russia), the Pakistani NSA deliberately projected a fictitious map that Pakistan has recently been propagating.”

 

“This was in blatant disregard to the advisory by the host against it and in violation of the norms of the meeting. After consultation with the host, the Indian side left the meeting in protest at that juncture,” said the external affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava. He added, ‘As was to be expected, Pakistan then went on to present a misleading view of this meeting.”

 

 

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan in August had unveiled what he claimed as the new “political map of Pakistan” claiming the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Junagadh in Gujarat as its territories to which India had reacted strongly by describing it as an “exercise in political absurdity” with no legal validity. Pakistan’s use of a “fictitious map” is a backdrop for its representative, which depicted sovereign Indian territories as part of Pakistan, according to people familiar with developments. It also was a blatant violation of the SCO charter and went against all established norms of the grouping for safeguarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of member states.

 

Meanwhile, Russian NSA Nikolai Patrushev reportedly conveyed to the Indian side that he was personally incredibly grateful to his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval for attending the SCO Summit.