During his address at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meet in Uzbekistan, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Saturday that the existing international laws and mechanisms are needed to be implemented without double standards to combat terrorists.

“Terrorism continues to disrupt our societies and undermine our developmental endeavours. The only way to fight this scourge is to strengthen and implement, without exceptions or double standards, all existing international laws and mechanisms to combat terrorists and their enablers,” tweeted the Defence Ministry.

Terrorism continues to disrupt our societies & undermine our developmental endeavors.The only way to fight this scourge is to strengthen and implement, without exceptions or double standards, all existing international laws and mechanisms to combat terrorists & their enablers:RM

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— रक्षा मंत्री कार्यालय/ RMO India (@DefenceMinIndia) November 2, 2019

Rajnath Singh is on a three-day visit to Uzbekistan to represent India at the meeting of the SCO’s Council of Heads of Government (CHG).

“The leaders participating in the Meeting are expected to focus their discussions on the multilateral economic cooperation/economic development in the SCO region,” the MEA said in a statement ahead of Singh’s visit.

He termed terrorism as a ‘multidimensional, complex, and transnational’ problem and called upon the international community to come together to fight the menace.

“These new threats are multidimensional, complex, and transnational in nature. What is worse, they have a disproportionately adverse impact on developing countries. Climate change, terrorism, endemic poverty and inequality etc. can only be defeated together, not alone,” he said.

“It is important for SCO countries to come together to deal with this menace. I wish to congratulate Russia for successful holding the SCO joint military exercise CENTER 2019 in Orenburg aimed at evolving drills of the participating armies in the fight against terrorism,” he added.

In the SCO meeting, Rajnath Singh was received by Uzbekistan Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov. Apart from the SCO meeting, he will also hold bilateral engagements with Uzbekistan.