SCO Summit 2022: Will PM Modi hold bilateral meet with Xi Jinping, Shehbaz Sharif? Here's what MEA says

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) first in-person summit in Samarkand in Uzbekistan on Thursday. On reports of possibility of the Prime Minister holding bilateral talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said, “We would keep you apprised as the schedule unfolds”.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold bilateral meetings with the President of Uzbekistan and some other leaders on the sidelines of the SCO Summit… We would keep you apprised as the schedule unfolds,” Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said when asked about bilateral meetings with the leaders of China, Pakistan and Russia.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in Uzbekistan for the SCO Summit for a brief period and he will be reached there later on Thursday night. “PM Modi will attend the restricted and extended sessions and a couple of other engagements tomorrow (Friday), along with a set of bilateral meetings. He is then scheduled to return tomorrow night,” Kwatra said.

The Foreign Secretary said that Prime Minister Modi’s participation in the SCO Summit 2022 is “a reflection of the importance that India attaches to the SCO and its cause”.

PM Modi will be attending the Summit on Friday morning. It usually has 2 sessions – restricted session, only for the SCO member states and then an extended session, likely includes participation by observers and special invitees, the Foreign Secretary said.

PM Modi to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on sidelines of SCO Summit

Russian Ambassador to India Denis Alipov Thursday said that Vladimir Putin will have a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Modi on the sidelines of the 22nd Summit of the Council of Heads of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Member States (SCO-CoHS) in the Uzbek capital in Samarkand.

News agency ANI quoted Alipov saying, “Russian President Putin is going to participate in the forthcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit. PM Modi is also going. We have already announced that there will be a number of meetings in Samarkand, including with PM Modi.”

The SCO summit 2022 would be the first in-person SCO-CoHS Summit, after the last one held in June 2019 in Bishkek, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world as the subsequent two summits under the chairmanship of Russia and Tajikistan were held in virtual format.

Leaders of SCO Member States, Observer States, Secretary General of the SCO, Executive Director of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), President of Turkmenistan and other invited guests would attend the meeting.

SCO members states

The SCO currently comprises eight Member States – China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan

The SCO has four Observer states interested in acceding to full membership. They are – Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia. It also has six “Dialogue Partners” – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey.

With inputs from agencies

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