The SCO meeting is also anticipated to be attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and their Pakistani counterparts Bilawal Bhutto.
Tomorrow, S. Jaishankar, the external affairs minister, will go on a two-day trip to the Uzbek capital Tashkent to attend a Shanghai Cooperation Organization foreign ministerial conclave (SCO).
The SCO meeting is also anticipated to be attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and their Pakistani counterparts Bilawal Bhutto.
Mr. Wang and Mr. Lavro, two of Mr. Jaishankar’s peers from the SCO countries, are anticipated to meet separately.
The SCO summit in September, set for September 15–16 in Samarkand, will be discussed during the SCO Foreign Ministers’ meeting, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), which announced Mr. Jaishankar’s visit.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will probably go to Uzbekistan to attend the meeting.
To participate in the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers meeting, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will go to Uzbekistan on July 28 and 29, at the request of Acting Foreign Minister Vladimir Norov of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
The next Council of Heads of State meeting, which will take place on September 15–16 in Samarkand, will be covered during the session, according to the statement.
The MEA said the foreign ministers would review ongoing cooperation in the expansion of the SCO and exchange ideas on regional and global developments of common concern. The SCO is an influential economic and security bloc and has emerged as one of the largest transregional international organizations. India and Pakistan became their permanent members in 2017.
The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the Presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
India has shown a keen interest in deepening its security-related cooperation with the SCO and its Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS), which deals explicitly with issues relating to security and defense.
India became an observer at the SCO in 2005 and has generally participated in the ministerial-level meetings of the grouping, which focus mainly on security and economic cooperation in the Eurasian region.
