New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to travel to Samarkand in Uzbekistan for the 'Shanghai Cooperation Organisation' (SCO) summit slated to be held on September 15 and 16. Commenting on the significance of the meeting, India's ex-ambassador Anil Trigunayat said, "The SCO summit is taking place as the global order is in an unprecedented transition . The outcome is likely to be a Cold War 2.0".
"SCO is an important security and anti-terrorism grouping with at least three major powers as the pivot, which include China, India and Russia. There are fundamental issues between India and China on territorial integrity and sovereignty, while India alleges Pakistan for state-sponsored terrorism against India", Trigunayat explained. But India's initiatives be it for connectivity, health, climate change, trade, investment and energy security or under the aegis of SCO-RATS have been evident and proved mutually beneficial, he added. This will be the first in-person summit after June 2019 when the SCO summit was held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi are among the leaders expected at the summit.
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While there is no official confirmation on bilateral meetings, leaders are expected to come face to face, including PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The last time when Modi and Xi Jinping were face-to-face and in-person and had a bilateral meeting was in November 2019, during the BRICS summit in Brazil. It is pertinent to note that just a week ahead of the SCO summit in Samarkand, Indian and the Chinese armies announced disengagement at one of the last remaining friction points — Patrolling Point 15 in the Gogra-Hot Springs region, which can be seen as an opportunity for both sides to engage in diplomacy at the highest level.
The summit will discuss global and regional issues, including the fallout of the Russia-Ukraine war, Afghanistan under the Taliban regime, and efforts to contain it. Ambassador Trigunayat further reiterated that the meeting is being convened in the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine war and its global fallout and China-US geopolitical competition, which will have a limiting influence on various outcomes. India will assume the SCO's rotational presidency at the Samarkand summit's end. Therefore, Delhi will hold the presidency of the grouping for a year until September 2023. Next year, India will host the SCO summit, which is expected to be attended by leaders of China, Russia and Pakistan.
