Ashish Ranjan
Pakistan did not attend a conference of military medicine specialists under the auspices of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) on Tuesday after India objected to the use of inaccurate map depicting the country’s borders, particularly in Kashmir.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the Indian side, including the external affairs ministry, addressed the issue because Pakistani officials used similar maps at an earlier SCO meeting. India is hosting a series of official and ministerial meetings in advance of the SCO Summit, scheduled for July.
People said that the Pakistani side was using maps that depicted Kashmir as part of a neighbouring country, an issue that has impacted SCO meetings in recent years.
Pakistan was scheduled to participate in an official capacity at the conference of think tanks with the theme “SCO Armed Forces Contribution in Military Medicine, Healthcare, and Pandemics.” According to one of the individuals cited above, the Pakistani side did not participate after the Indian side objected.
The conference was hosted by the Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA) at a hotel in New Delhi. According to the sources, Tuesday’s development is not anticipated to affect other upcoming SCO meetings.
“At an event preceding Tuesday’s seminar, the Pakistani delegation displayed a map that incorrectly placed Kashmir within Pakistan. After the matter was brought to the attention of the ministry of foreign affairs, the Pakistani side was asked to present the correct map or withdraw from the seminar. “The delegation chose to abstain,” said a second individual.
The purpose of the seminar was to share best practises in the areas of military medicine, healthcare, and pandemic control. The theme was selected based on the contributions made by various armed forces over the last two and a half years to combat Covid-19 by providing isolation wards, emergency healthcare apparatus, and aiding vaccination programmes in remote areas.
Since the armed forces of SCO states are typically among the first to respond to such issues, a conference of think tanks was scheduled to concentrate on how the eight members of the group can respond to future challenges, according to officials.
In September 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval left a virtual meeting of senior SCO security officials after the Pakistani representative displayed an inaccurate map of the countries’ borders.
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At the time, the external affairs ministry accused the Pakistani side of propagating a “fictitious map” The Indian side also lodged a formal protest with Russia, which convened the SCO in 2020, stating that the incident constituted a flagrant violation of the organisation’s charter and violated all norms regarding the protection of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of member states.
