Modi Arrives In Samarkand For SCO Summit, Meeting With Putin On Card
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Samarkand in Uzbekistan on Thursday evening to take part in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Heads of State Summit.
“Landed in Samarkand to take part in the SCO Summit,” PM Narendra Modi said in a tweet.
During the summit, the leaders are expected to review the activities of SCO and discuss prospects for future cooperation.
Uzbekistan is the current chair of SCO 2022 and India will assume the rotational annual presidency of the SCO at the end of the Samarkand Summit.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on the sidelines of the SCO summit and is likely to have some other bilateral meetings.
The last SCO Heads of State Summit was held in June 2019 in Bishkek. India will assume the rotational annual presidency of the SCO at the end of the Samarkand Summit. PM Modi is expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on the sidelines of the SCO summit. He is also expected to have some other bilateral meetings.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi are also expected to attend the summit. Uzbekistan is the current chair of SCO 2022.
The SCO currently comprises eight Member States (China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan), four Observer States interested in acceding to full membership (Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia) and six “Dialogue Partners” (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey).
The Shanghai Five, formed in 1996, became the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in 2001 with the inclusion of Uzbekistan. With India and Pakistan entering the grouping in 2017 and the decision to admit Tehran as a full member in 2021, SCO became one of the largest multilateral organizations, accounting for nearly 30 percent of the global GDP and 40 percent of the world’s population. (ANI)
