New Delhi/Beijing: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in separate bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit at Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on June 13-14. India is likely to take up the issue of terrorism at the SCO when Mr Modi addresses the summit on June 14.
The SCO is an eight-member Central Asian grouping that comprises China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, India, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan. India and Pakistan became SCO members in 2017. No bilateral meeting has been scheduled with Pakistan PM Imran Khan though it remains to be seen whether there is any impromptu “pull-aside” informal meeting of the two leaders.
But interestingly, certain multilateral defence exchanges of the SCO are due later this year that could include both Indian and Pakistani troops — for the first time since the military tension between the two countries in February — when the troops of the two countries could be part of the same exercise.
On whether the menace of terrorism would be raised at the conference at a time when Pakistan is under global watch over state-sponsored terror, senior MEA officials indicated New Delhi would raise the issue of the threat terrorism poses to all nations. MEA secretary (west) Gitesh Sarma said: “We will do whatever we have to. Terrorism is a danger to all.”
But while India is likely to take up the issue of terrorism strongly, speculation is rife that New Delhi may not directly raise the issue of terror emanating from Pakistani soil or territory controlled by it due to the multilateral nature of SCO.
Apart from separate bilateral meetings with the Chinese and Russian Presidents, India has also got a request for a bilateral meeting with at least one more SCO member MEA officials didn’t name. MEA spokesman Raveesh Kumar only reiterated that there would be no bilateral meeting between the Indian and Pakistani PMs on the sidelines of the SCO conference. Pakistan PM Imran Khan had recently written reportedly to Mr Modi while Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had written to new external affairs minister S. Jaishankar, suggesting a dialogue between the two neighbours.
In Beijing, meanwhile, the Chinese foreign ministry said President Xi and Prime Minister Modi, “who are good friends”, may discuss their respective trade frictions with the United States and reach a consensus on opposing trade protectionism in their “very important” meeting this week on SCO’s sidelines, a PTI report adds.
President Xi had congratulated Mr Modi on his re-election through a letter on May 23. “Once again we congratulate Prime Minister Modi. President Xi and
Prime Minister Modi are good friends. They had a very successful informal summit at Wuhan last year,” Chinese vice foreign minister Zhang Hanhui told a media briefing, answering a question on the Modi-Xi meeting.
When asked about the meeting between the two leaders on the SCO’s sidelines, Mr Zhang said: “While details for the meeting are under discussion, I believe every bilateral meeting between President Xi and Prime Minister Modi is very important. From the Chinese side, we will make good preparations for the success of the
bilateral meeting.” He also said the China-US trade war and the “spectre” of emerging trade frictions between the US and India could be an important part of discussions between the two leaders. “Whether they will talk about trade fictions between China and the US and the spectre of trade frictions between the US and India, such things are not surprising. I believe this could become an important topic in his bilateral meetings with the related leaders,” he said.
