PM Modi at SCO: Dismantle Terror Financing, End State Shelter
Synopsis
Prime Minister Narendra Modi used the SCO platform on 1 September 2026 to demand the dismantling of the full terror ecosystem — financing, recruitment, radicalisation and safe havens — and called out nations that use terrorism as state policy, in a pointed message directed at Pakistan without naming it.
Key Takeaways
PM Modi addressed the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation on 1 September 2026 , framing counter-terrorism as central to the SCO's relevance.
He called for dismantling the entire ecosystem of terrorist financing, recruitment, radicalisation, and safe havens .
Modi explicitly condemned countries that 'use terrorism as an instrument of state policy' — a formulation widely understood as directed at Pakistan .
India has been a full SCO member since 2017 and has consistently raised terrorism concerns at the bloc's summits.
The SCO's Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) , set up in 2004 , is the institutional body India wants activated more forcefully.
The statement sets up a test for the next SCO summit declaration on whether member states will commit to collective action.
At a moment when the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation faces pressure to prove its security credentials, Prime Minister Narendra Modi drew a hard line on Tuesday, 1 September 2026: counter-terrorism is not a side agenda for the SCO — it is the condition for the bloc's very survival.
The warning aimed at Islamabad without naming it
Modi's statement targeted the full chain of terror infrastructure — financing, recruitment, radicalisation, and safe havens — and went a step further, calling out countries that 'use terrorism as an instrument of state policy and provide shelter and support' to terror networks. The phrasing is a well-worn Indian diplomatic formulation, and its intended audience within the SCO is not ambiguous. Pakistan, a fellow SCO member, has long been at the centre of India's accusations of state-sponsored cross-border terrorism.
By raising the charge inside the SCO chamber itself, Modi turns the multilateral forum into a pressure point — demanding that member states either act collectively or account for their inaction.
India's decade-long push inside the SCO
India joined the SCO as a full member in 2017, and has used every major platform since to press the same demand: that the bloc's Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), established in 2004, must move from coordination on paper to consequence in practice. The RATS framework was designed to synchronise intelligence and operational counter-terrorism efforts across member states — but India has consistently argued that its potential is undermined when some members simultaneously harbour the networks RATS is meant to dismantle.
This is not a new grievance. It is a pattern, sharpened summit by summit, into a doctrine.
What the SCO must now answer
The SCO's founding promise was a stable, integrated Eurasia — built on security first. Modi's intervention forces a question the bloc has long deferred: can an organisation credibly fight terrorism when one of its own members stands accused of sponsoring it? The next SCO summit communiqué and RATS deliberations will signal whether the grouping can move past diplomatic ambiguity on this fault line.
India is not waiting for consensus. It is building the record, statement by statement, that it demanded accountability — and that others chose silence.
Point of View
India is daring the bloc to either enforce its own anti-terrorism architecture or concede its strategic irrelevance. This fits a broader Indian foreign policy arc: using multilateral platforms not just for consensus-building but as arenas to isolate and name-adjacent Pakistan. The pressure will land hardest if other SCO members — particularly the Central Asian states — begin to publicly align with India's framing ahead of the next summit.
NationPress
1 Sept 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
What did PM Modi say at the SCO about terrorism?
PM Modi called for dismantling the entire ecosystem of terrorist financing, recruitment, radicalisation and safe havens, and condemned countries that use terrorism as an instrument of state policy.
Which country is India targeting with its SCO terrorism statements?
India has not named any country explicitly, but the reference to states that 'use terrorism as an instrument of state policy and provide shelter' is widely understood as directed at Pakistan, a fellow SCO member.
What is the SCO's Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS)?
RATS is the SCO body established in 2004 to coordinate counter-terrorism intelligence and operations among member states. India has pushed for it to be used more forcefully against terror networks.
When did India join the SCO?
India became a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in 2017 and has since used SCO summits to raise concerns about cross-border terrorism.
Why is India's SCO counter-terrorism stance significant in 2026?
India's consistent pressure inside the SCO puts the bloc's credibility on the line — forcing member states to either take collective action against terror infrastructure or face questions about their own complicity.
