June 28th 2024.
New Delhi: India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will be representing the country at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's annual summit in Astana next week. This comes as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to not attend the summit. Instead, he will be embarking on a trip to Russia from July 8 to 9, marking his first visit to the country in almost five years. After concluding his visit to Russia, Modi is expected to make a two-day trip to Austria on July 9.
It is believed that Modi made the decision to skip the SCO summit due to his scheduled visits to Russia and Austria. However, there has been no official confirmation on his trips to these two countries yet. The SCO summit, which will take place on July 3 and 4, will focus on regional security and ways to enhance connectivity and trade among member countries.
At his weekly media briefing on Friday, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal announced that the Indian delegation at the SCO summit will be led by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. The summit is expected to cover topics such as the situation in Afghanistan, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, and strengthening overall security cooperation among member countries.
The SCO, which includes India, China, Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, is a prominent economic and security bloc that has emerged as one of the largest international organizations in the region. Normally, the Indian Prime Minister attends the SCO summit, but this year, Modi will not be able to do so.
During a phone conversation on Tuesday, Prime Minister Modi expressed his full support for the success of the summit to Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who is hosting the meeting as the current chair of the grouping. India was the chair of the SCO last year and hosted the summit in a virtual format in July 2020.
India's association with the SCO began in 2005 as an observer country and became a full member state at the Astana summit in 2017. India has shown a keen interest in deepening its security cooperation with the SCO and its Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure, which deals specifically with security and defense matters. The SCO was founded in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan at a summit in Shanghai. In 2017, Pakistan became a permanent member of the SCO along with India.
PTI
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