Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting Uzbekistan today to address the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit. The leaders are supposed to review the group’s activities over the past two decades and discuss the possibilities of multilateral cooperation.
According to Ministry of External Affairs, the summit will be attended by leaders of SCO member states, observer countries, the Secretary General of the SCO, the President of Turkmenistan and other invited guests and the Executive Director of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS).
The Ministry of External Affairs confirms that the Prime Minister is likely to have some bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit. It is likely to be attended by Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
During the SCO summit, Putin will talk over Russian-Indian Cooperation with PM Modi within the UN and G-20. Also, there are no gestures of PM Modi to have any kind of arranged conversation with Pakistan and China.
On the invitation of President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Prime Minister Modi will visit Samarkand today to attend the 22nd meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO, the statement said.
The leaders are expected to review the organization’s activities over the past two decades and discuss the state and prospects of multilateral cooperation in the future during the summit, the statement said.
Regional and global importance are considered to be the topical issues in the meeting. In June 2019, the SCO summit was held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. After 2019, this will be the first summit of the SCO in which leaders will have a physical presence.
The Moscow summit in the year 2020 was held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic while the 2021 summit in Dushanbe was held in a “hybrid” manner. The SCO is headquartered in Beijing and includes China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan.
