New Delhi: The much-anticipated 22nd Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) will be held in a virtual mode on 4 July, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced Tuesday but did not specify why.
Earlier, it was widely reported that the meeting would take place in New Delhi, which could have seen the physical attendance of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif among others.
According to a statement from the MEA, invitations were sent to heads of state of all SCO member countries — China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Iran, Belarus and Mongolia were invited as Observer States for the upcoming meeting.
Earlier this month, Pakistan foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari reached Goa to attend the SCO Foreign Ministers Council meeting. It was the first official visit by a Pakistani foreign minister since 2011.
Due to India’s presidency in the SCO and the G20, foreign ministers of India and China have met twice over the last couple of months despite the ongoing border standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang met in March for the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting in New Delhi, and then in May during the SCO Foreign Ministers Council meeting in Goa. The two leaders would have likely met for the third time this year if the SCO Summit was held in-person.
A foreign affairs analyst was not surprised by the announcement, given potential scheduling issues of top leaders.
Recently, US President Joe Biden cut short his Asia-Pacific trip and Japanese foreign minister’s Yoshimasa Hayashi skipped the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting earlier this year.
“The decision does not cause much surprise. (Russian President Vladimir) Putin may be unable to travel during the war effort, (Chinese President) Xi Jinping would also have to come again for the G20 summit and (Pakistan PM) Shehbaz Sharif may be happy to avoid coming to Delhi at this juncture,” Rajiv Bhatia, Distinguished Fellow, Foreign Studies Programme at Gateway House, told ThePrint.
India’s chairmanship of the SCO has been “a period of intense activity and mutually beneficial cooperation between Member States”, according to the MEA statement.
Apart from heads of state from the eight member countries, heads of six international and regional organisations such as the UN, ASEAN, CIS, CSTO, EAEU and CICA have also been invited for the upcoming summit.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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Source: The Print
