Jaishankar to participate in SCO Foreign Ministers meet in Uzbekistan

S. Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs will go to Uzbekistan on Thursday to attend a meeting of SCO Council of Foreign Ministers.

At the SCO Foreign Ministers gathering, Jaishankar will sit at a table alongside Bilawal Bhutto of Pakistan. After the establishment of new coalition government in Islamabad, led by Shehbaz Sharif and including Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Bhutto would be seeing EAM Jaishankar in person for first time.

According to MEA press statement, Jaishankar is attending conference at Vladimir Norov’s request as Republic of Uzbekistan’s acting foreign affairs minister.

The conference is significant because Foreign Ministers will debate and make plans for forthcoming Council of Heads of State gathering, which is scheduled to take place in Samarkand on September 15–16, 2022.

The debate will examine continued collaboration in SCO Organization’s expansion and exchange viewpoints on regional and global trends of shared interest, according to press release.

Meanwhile, Wang Yi, Foreign Minister of China, will also be present at conference. To discuss the results of most recent 16th round of talks between military commanders of India and China to end the standoff along LAC in Eastern Ladakh, Jaishankar and Wang Yi may meet privately.