India, June 26 -- The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) defence ministers' meeting could not issue a joint communique on Thursday as India's defence minister Rajnath Singh refused to sign the document, citing its failure to address terrorism-related concerns, officials aware of the development said.

Singh, who attended the meeting in China's Qingdao, did not sign the joint communique as it omitted the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack-in which 26 people were killed-while mentioning the Jaffar Express hijacking in Pakistan by the Balochistan Liberation Army on March 11, an official requesting anonymity said.

China, the current president of the SCO, has deep military and strategic ties with Pakistan, which it strongly supported during...