External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday made an indirect reference to Pakistan during a meeting of Foreign Ministers of Shanghai Cooperation Orgsation (SCO) and said that some countries are "busy" in spreading terrorism while the world is fighting against coronavirus.
Taking to Twitter, Jaishankar said he participated in the virtual SCO meeting during which the impact of coronavirus, the anniversary of ending of Second World War, the situation in Afghstan and future SCO activities were also discussed. The conference was held under the chairmanship of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
The minister also posted a clip of his around one-minute speech from the meeting. "Even as world fighting COVID-19 some are busy in spreading other viruses such as terrorism, fake news Doctored videos are also used to divide communities and countries," he said.
Similar remarks were made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the virtual Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit earlier this month.
On May 4, Modi had said that while the world is fighting the novel coronavirus, some people are busy spreading other deadly viruses such as terrorism and fake news.
Pakistan has been continuing its attempts on cross-border infiltration of terrorists even as the world is battling the COVID-19 pandemic. Its leaders have peddled fake videos in order to create divisions. Security agencies have traced thousands of social media handles based in Pakistan spreading fake news.
Highlighting that the coronavirus crisis has resulted in interruption of production networks and supply chains, Jaishankar said the SCO member states should jointly identify new ways and means to sustain economic growths.
"During COVID-19, we have all seen any prospect of growth evaporates before our very eyes. For a society like India, it means many will not come out of poverty for no fault of theirs. they have little understanding and even less control why this happens. Of course, the crisis has resulted in interruption of production networks and supply chains, reverberating across the globe. in these circumstances. It is pertinent of member states to jointly identify new ways and means to sustain economic growths," he added.
The global number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has neared 4.3 million, with the death toll exceeding 292,000.
( With inputs from ANI )