The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit 2022 is due to begin today, September 15, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is prepared to visit the international conference to hold bilateral talks with a number of world leaders.
According to sources and media reports, PM Modi will meet privately with foreign leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Notably, this will be PM Modi’s first in-person encounter with Putin since the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine.
The SCO summit is being held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, this year, and the Indian prime minister is scheduled to meet with Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the president of Uzbekistan, to conduct bilateral negotiations.
The media agency was informed by a source that “PM Modi’s bilateral meetings with Presidents Putin of Russia and Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan are practically set, and the discussions would take place on the margins of the SCO summit in Samarkand.”
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the SCO presidents won’t have spoken to one another for two years. As a result, multiple bilateral discussions are anticipated to take place on the margins of the summit, with topics including commerce and defence systems expected to be discussed.
“The SCO meetings will include discussion of the key issue of economic cooperation within the organisation. When we meet with central Asian nations, we talk about connectivity that will encourage trade, investment, and other contacts between India and central Asian nations, according to Manish Prabhat, the Indian ambassador to Uzbekistan.
Shahbaz Sharif, the prime minister of Pakistan, and Ebrahim Raisi, the president of Iran, in addition to the other foreign leaders already listed, are anticipated to attend the summit.
Additionally, it is anticipated that PM Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin will speak on a number of important topics involving their respective nations, including the pandemic, the conflict in Russia and Ukraine, and India’s defence trade agreements with those nations.
The SCO summit is being chaired this year by Uzbekistan, and the world summit will be run by India the next year.
Read more: SCO summit: Modi to attend summit in Samarkand with Xi, Putin, Shehbaz on September 15 and 16
