2009 Indo-Pak Sharm-El Sheikh Row Revived: Rajnath, Jaishankar Target Congress In Op Sindoor Debate

During the heating debate on Operation Sindoor in the Parliament Monsoon Session, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar attacked Congress on the 2009 Sharm El-Sheikh joint statement by then PM Manmohan Singh with his Pakistani counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani. The Sharm-el-Sheikh meeting took place on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement summit in July 2009, only eight months after the Mumbai attacks. The statement released by the MEA on July 16, 2009 declared terrorism “the main threat to both countries" and included a reference to Balochistan — seen as a major diplomatic blunder that allowed Pakistan to accuse India of meddling.