SCO Summit: PM Modi to hold bilateral talks with Xi Jinping

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday on the sidelines of the SCO Summit in Qingdao.

The meeting would come over a month after the two leaders held an informal summit in the Chinese city of Wuhan in April during which they exchanged views on solidifying the relations between the two Asian powers.

Modi will be participating in the 18th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit, being held under the chairmanship of President Xi, on June 9 and 10, in Qingdao, Shandong province, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.

Among other issues, the summit is expected to focus on opportunities for cooperation among SCO members and the situation in the region.

The prime minister's programme includes participation in the welcome banquet hosted by the Chinese president on the evening of June 9. The main day of the SCO summit is June 10, Kumar said.

Modi will attend the SCO heads of states meeting in both the restricted as well as the extended formats, he said, adding that bilateral meetings of the prime minister were also planned on the sidelines of the Summit.

India on Wednesday said the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in China stands for "multi-polarity" and it conveys the message that big countries can peacefully coexist despite differences in their systems

The 18th SCO Summit, scheduled for June 9 and 10 in Qingdao, Shandong province, will be attended by a host of world leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin

"We hope the summit will be very successful. We are confident it will be very successful. We know that China will host very successful Qingdao SCO summit. We are very much looking forward to it," Indian Ambassador to China Gautam Bambawale said

This is the first SCO summit after India and Pakistan were admitted as regular members last year

The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the Presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.