Claim: Indian Army veteran Major (r) Gaurav Arya has praised Pakistan and its global standing after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Kyrgyzstan on 1 September 2026.
Fact: Arya’s comments in the video, while authentic, were critical of Pakistan and he was taking a jibe at the country. His remarks have been misrepresented by removing his snide views.
On 3 and 4 September 2026, multiple Facebook users shared a video of Indian Army veteran and media commentator Major (r) Gaurav Arya speaking in favour of Pakistan after PM Shehbaz Sharif attended the 26th meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) Council of Heads of State (CHS) in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on 1 September 2026.
In the video, Arya — also the editor-in-chief of the defence website Chanakya Forum — states:
“So in the entire SCO Summit, Shehbaz Sharif was standing in the middle. Right in the middle, in the centre. The most important place was given to Shehbaz Sharif. And on one side was Putin, on the other was Xi Jinping, and everyone is standing, and in the middle was Shehbaz Sharif. Meaning that Pakistan is important, that Pakistan’s Prime Minister is so important, think about it yourself. All decisions are being made in Pakistan and Pakistanis will bring peace in the world, InshAllah [God willing]. This is what Pakistanis will do. Pakistan was invited to the SCO Summit and Pakistan was made a member of the SCO. Why? I’ll tell you. Because the members have a [right to] vote. They have a vote. And friends, China, on purpose, because it is the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, made Pakistan a member.”
Some of the captions accompanying the viral video are as follows:
- “پاکستان کی عزت پہ پڑوسیوں کی چیخیں آسمان تک بلند ہورہی ہے [The neighbours’ screams are reaching the heavens over Pakistan’s respect.]”
- “پاکستان کی عزت پہ پڑوسیوں کی چیخیں آسمان تک بلند ہورہی ہے وجہ اللہ پاک نے جو پاکستان کو عزت دی بھارت کو ذلت دی وہ قابل برداشت نہیں رہی ساری دنیا پاکستان اور شہباز شریف سمیت فوجی قیادت کی تعریف کررہی ہے ایک انڈین اور دوسرے نام آپ بتاؤ ان کو ہاضمہ نہیں ہورہی عزت انڈیا کی سمجھا آتی دوسرے ہمارے اپنے بھائی کیوں پریشان ہیں ان کا پردھان نہیں وہاں اس لئے ؟ [The screams of our neighbours over Pakistan’s rising respect are reaching the skies. The reason is that the honour God Almighty has bestowed upon Pakistan and the humiliation He has dealt to India has become unbearable for them. The whole world is praising Pakistan and Shehbaz Sharif, as well as its military leadership, but India and certain others — you name them — cannot digest this. While India’s reaction is understandable, why are some of our own brothers so distressed? Is it because their own leader isn’t there?]”
- “بھارتی میجر گورائیہ اور دوسرے پاکستان کے ۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔ پاکستان کی عزت برداشت نہیں ھو رھی ۔ان کو مرچیں لگی ھوئی ھیں ۔ [Indian Major Goraya and others …….. of Pakistan cannot stand Pakistan’s respect. It stings them deeply.]”
- “۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔تعریف وہی جو دشمن کرے ۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔ ۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔ہمیشہ پاکستان پر بھونکنے والے ۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔گوبر آریہ کے منہ سے تعریفیں [……………True praise is that which comes from an enemy ………. ………Someone who is always barking at Pakistan ………Praise from the mouth of ‘Gobar Arya’]”
SCO Summit 2026
At the 26th SCO CHS meeting, the organisation’s chairmanship for 2026-2027 was passed to Pakistan, “whose leader defined the theme of the chairmanship as ‘Turning Vision into Action: Connectivity, Innovation and Shared Prosperity’”, its website states. Kyrgyzstan held the position from 2025-2026.
Moreover, according to the website, Lahore has “received the status of the SCO Tourism and Cultural Capital for 2026-2027”.
Fact or Fiction?
Reverse-searching keyframes from the viral video led us to a larger version — without the complementing visuals visible in the Facebook posts — shared on X (formerly Twitter) by an individual named Zafar Shirazi, who appears to be a supporter of the country’s ruling party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
In the larger version, we observed that the words “The Chanakya Dialogues” appear in the video multiple times from right to left, indicating that it is from Arya’s YouTube channel, alongside Shirazi’s own watermark.
Narrowing our search between 1 and 4 September 2026, we browsed through his channel’s Facebook page ‘Chanakya Forum’ and found a video-blog featuring Arya, posted on 3 September with the following caption:
“SCO Summit में Shehbaz Sharif की कूटनीतिक कोशिशें कितनी सफल रहीं? क्या पाकिस्तान अपनी Diplomacy को जरूरत से ज्यादा दिखाने की कोशिश कर रहा है? [How successful were Shehbaz Sharif’s diplomatic efforts at the SCO Summit? Is Pakistan trying to overplay its diplomacy?]”
The Indian commentator’s remarks in question can be heard in two instances in the video: between the 3:40 and 4:08 mark, and the 5:55 and 6:14 mark. However, the viral clips have misrepresented his comments.
Between the 2:50 and 4:19 mark, Arya discussed how the Pakistani Prime Minister’s Office posted two photographs from the SCO Summit, saying the first one was cropped to make it appear as if Sharif was a key figure in the middle, indicating what he claimed was the “mindset of Pakistanis” and how “Pakistanis disrespected themselves”. He said the second one was the “real photo”, shared only after severe online backlash.
By comparing the two photographs in this way, Arya was taking a jibe at Pakistan and speaking sarcastically; he was not genuinely praising the country.
However, his claim is not entirely true; both pictures are authentic but from different moments. A photo similar to the first one was shared by the Presidency of Tajikistan and is available on Getty Images. While it is likely that the image posted by the PM Office was taken by the Pakistani delegation’s official photographer and focused only on the six people visible, all heads of states were present at the stage.
Images similar to the second one — which features a row of people behind the heads of states — were shared by China’s State Council Information Office (SCIO), Türkiye’s Directorate of Communications, the United Nations, and the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC).
Then, between the 5:30 and 6:28 mark, the retired Indian army veteran further criticised Pakistan, saying there was “a full-fledged campaign to project” it as “a crucial country”.
He said China made Pakistan a member of the SCO because “Pakistan is China’s pet dog, Pakistan would bark on China’s orders and bite on China’s orders but, on its own, Pakistan’s importance is zero and Pakistan’s contribution in the world is zero”.
The viral videos ended abruptly before the aforementioned remarks.
In the entire video, Arya only attacked Pakistan, PM Sharif, and Chief of Defence Forces (CDS) Field Marshal Asim Munir but praised Nobel laureate, the late nuclear physicist Dr Abdus Salam, as well as former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that the viral videos circulating on social media cherrypicked his sarcastic remarks against Pakistan as authentic praise while removing the criticism.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the video posted over a dozen times on Facebook, twice each on Instagram, Threads, and TikTok, and thrice on X.
Conclusion: Arya’s comments, while authentic, were critical of Pakistan. He was, instead, taking a jibe at the country and his remarks have been misrepresented by removing his snide views.
Background image in cover photo: MajorGauravArya
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