SCO Summit begins today: PM Modi to hold bilateral talks with Putin

New Delhi, Sep 14: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the 22nd Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit 2022 in Uzbekistan today. While PM Modi is set to share stage with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif, bilateral talks with Russia has also been scheduled.

Both Beijing and New Delhi have maintained silence over whether Jinping will have a sidebar with PM Modi during the meet.

The Prime Minister would also have bilateral meetings with other leaders on the sidelines of SCO summit.

"Economic cooperation in the SCO is an important question, which will be discussed in the SCO meetings. When we are meeting with central Asian countries, we discuss connectivity which will promote trade, investment and other exchanges between Indian and central Asian countries," Indian Ambassador to Uzbekistan Manish Prabhat had told ANI.

SCO can also be a vocal platform for India to push the agenda of regional and cross-regional connectivity that could force Pakistan to moderate its views and approach to linking Central Asia and South Asia.

India will also assume the presidency at the end of the summit until September 2023 and will also host the summit next year. Apart from this, India will also assume the presidency of the G20 (Group of Twenty) for a year starting 1 December 2022 and is expected to host over 200 meetings across the country during presidency tenure.

SCO is an eight-member economic and security bloc consisting of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India, and Pakistan.