Rajnath Singh at 25th SCO Heads of Government Meet in Dushanbe

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh spoke for India at the 25th Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government (CHG) of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), held in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, on 20 October 2026. The CHG is the SCO body that steers economic and other practical cooperation between member countries, and India has sat in it as a full member since 2017.

The call on terrorism

The Raksha Mantri asked member states to pull down the whole support structure that keeps terrorism alive, describing the menace as one of the heaviest threats to peace and to development. He argued that no excuse can be offered for terror, that twin yardsticks have no place in fighting it, and that those who fund it, back it or hand it safe ground deserve no shelter. Attacks of this kind, he said, take innocent lives, frighten away investment and commerce, harden societies and rob young people of chances they are owed.

Trade, new bodies and connectivity

India backed the adoption of an Action Plan for the Multilateral Trade and Economic Cooperation Programme covering 2026-2030. Mr Singh welcomed two permanent bodies cleared at the SCO Summit held at Bishkek in August-September 2026: a Universal Centre at Tashkent and an Anti-Drug Centre at Dushanbe. How well they work, he said, will rest on tight coordination and on finishing tasks on time. He also cautioned that piling up institutions does not by itself add up to achievement, and that any new mechanism should answer a clearly named need and avoid doing a job twice over.

On linking markets, the Minister pointed to the International North-South Transport Corridor and Chabahar Port as routes able to tie Central Asia to wider markets. Connectivity, he insisted, has to rest on consultation and on respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of every country, or the project will not last. He urged the region to move past roads and railways alone by simplifying customs procedures, moving to digital documentation, improving logistics and adopting interoperable digital systems, so that the cost of doing business across the region comes down.

What India placed on the table

• Digital Public Infrastructure, which reshaped public service delivery and deepened financial inclusion.
• One of the largest start-up ecosystems anywhere, and a stress on women-led development.
• The International Solar Alliance and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure.
• Mission LiFE on sustainable living, and the Global Biofuel Alliance on cleaner fuels.

Mr Singh recalled a symposium on financing infrastructure projects in Central Asia hosted at Mumbai earlier in the month, and the first SCO Asian Economic Dialogue. He invited member states to the first SCO Civilisational Dialogue Forum that India will host later this year. The heads of delegation adopted a Joint Communique that carried the SCO budget for 2027, financial and administrative decisions, and the trade action plan. He urged the grouping to build on its first 25 years with a forward-looking roadmap resting on consensus and on outcomes that can be counted.