India walks out of SCO meet after Pakistan projects 'fictitious map' showing Indian territory

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India on Tuesday walked out in protest from a virtual meeting of the national security advisers of member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) after Pakistani representative projected a "fictitious map" that inaccurately depicted the borders of the two countries. The meeting, which was chaired by Russia, saw National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval walk out.

"At the meeting of the national security advisers (NSAs) of member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), hosted by the chair of the SCO (Russia), the Pakistani NSA deliberately projected a fictitious map that Pakistan has recently been propagating," said External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava.

The Ministry of External Affairs said what Pakistan did was in "blatant disregard to host Russia's advisory".

"This was in blatant disregard to the advisory by the host against it and in violation of the norms of the meeting. After consultation with the host, the Indian side left the meeting in protest at that juncture. As was to be expected, Pakistan then went on to present a misleading view of this meeting," he said.

Sources said India issued its strong objection to the use of this illegal map by Pakistan and Russian side, as the Chair, tried very hard to persuade Pakistan not to do so.

Nikolai Patrushev, the Secretary of the National Security Council of Russian Federation has conveyed that he was personally very grateful to NSA for attending the SCO Summit, they said.

According to reports, Russia does not support what Pakistan has done and hopes that Pakistan's provocative act will not affect India's participation in SCO and definitely not cast any shadow on Patrushev's warm personal relationship for NSA for whom he has the highest regard.

Patrushev also said he hoped to see NSA at forthcoming events, they said.