SCO summit: Modi may meet Jinping, but not Nawaz Sharif

India and Pakistan will be formally admitted into the China dominated six-nation grouping at the SCO summit tomorrow.

The Ministry of External Affairs on Wednesday said there is a possibilty of meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, scheduled for Thursday.

MEA spokesperson Gopal Baglay, however, said that there is no meeting scheduled between Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif.

India and Pakistan will be formally admitted into the China dominated six-nation grouping at the SCO summit tomorrow. The admission of India and Pakistan will enlarge the group’s footprints for the first time to South Asia from Central Asia.

"Trade, connectivity, energy, banking and fight against terrorism are the main areas of cooperation," Baglay said while elaborating about the summit.

The group founded in Shanghai in 1996 is comprised of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and it mostly acts as China-dominated security group especially focussing on Central Asia.

Li Wei, an anti-terror expert at the China Institute of contemporary international relations, had on Tuesday said that SCO will also become an ideal platform for members with disputes to solve their problems bilaterally based on the Shanghai Spirit, said reports.

He was also quoted as saying that 'India and Pakistan should not quarrel within the SCO, because they will find more reasons to cooperate'.

(OneIndia News with PTI inputs)