Better regional connectivity is only possible if members grant each other “full transit rights”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, referring to Pakistan’s refusal to give India transit trade access by land to Afghanistan and Central Asia, at the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of State (CHS) here on Friday.
In a speech that was otherwise free from references to India’s regional issues on terrorism with Pakistan and on territorial sovereignty with China, Mr. Modi called for greater cooperation in the Eurasian region, and pointed to the “unprecedented” energy and food crisis arising from the twin issues of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine conflict. He also focused on initiatives on manufacturing that India is willing to pilot in the next year, when India assumes the chair of the SCO and hosts the Summit in mid-2023.
