NEW DELHI: The Indian government has announced that it will host the upcoming SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) summit virtually, amid speculation about the possible visits of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif to India. India currently holds the presidency of the Eurasian group and recently conducted an in-person meeting of the SCO foreign ministers in Goa, attended by all member-states, including Pakistan.
Initially, India had invited leaders from all member-countries for the summit, which would be the first under its presidency. However, due to the current strained relationship with China over the boundary dispute and the deteriorating ties with Pakistan, hosting an in-person summit would have posed challenges. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was expected to face both Xi and Sharif at the summit, making it a crucial and potentially tense meeting.
The decision to host a virtual summit means that Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, will not have to make back-to-back visits to India, as the Indian government is also preparing to host the G20 summit in September.
India has maintained that its relations with China are not normal, and since the military standoff in eastern Ladakh in April-May 2020, Modi and Xi have not had a bilateral meeting. As for Sharif, India will be relieved that it won’t have to host him during a period when Pakistan is also facing domestic political strife. A bilateral meeting between Modi and Sharif would have been unlikely in any case.
Before the G20 summit, Modi, Xi, and Putin are expected to come together for the Brics summit in Johannesburg in August. In the meantime, Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar will meet his Chinese and Russian counterparts at the Brics foreign ministers’ meeting in Cape Town.
Speculation arose about potential scheduling issues for an in-person summit, as India had initially proposed June 25 as the date for the meeting. However, diplomatic sources declined to comment on these rumors.
India assumed the presidency of the SCO at the previous summit held in Samarkand last year. For the upcoming summit in July, India has invited Iran, Belarus, and Mongolia as observer states.
The theme of the summit, according to the government’s statement, is “Towards a SECURE SCO.” The SECURE acronym was coined by Prime Minister Modi during the 2018 summit and represents Security, Economy and Trade, Connectivity, Unity, Respect for Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity, and Environment.
“The period of India’s chairmanship of SCO has been characterized by intense activity and mutually beneficial cooperation among member-states,” stated the government.
