SCO Summit 2022: PM Modi to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin soon, know what’s on agenda
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit 2022 is set to kick off tomorrow, September 15, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to attend the international conference to hold bilateral talks with several world leaders.
According to sources and media reports, PM Modi will be holding bilateral talks with world leaders such as Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Notably, this will be PM Modi’s first face-to-face meeting with Putin since the Russia-Ukraine war began.
This year’s SCO meeting is being conducted in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, and the Indian prime minister is also expected to meet with Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on the sidelines of the summit, to hold bilateral talks.
“PM Modi’s bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev are almost fixed and the meetings will take place on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Samarkand,” a source told ANI.
Since the SCO leaders will be meeting each other after a long period of two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, several bilateral meetings are expected to take place on the sidelines of the summit, with agendas like trade and defence systems expected to be brought up.
“Economic cooperation in the SCO is an important question, which will be discussed in the SCO meetings. When we are meeting with central Asian countries, we discuss connectivity which will promote trade, investment and other exchanges between Indian and central Asian countries,” Indian Ambassador to Uzbekistan Manish Prabhat told ANI.
Apart from the previously mentioned world leaders, Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi are also expected to attend the summit.
Further, it is expected that Russian President Vladimir Putin and PM Narendra Modi will be discussing several key issues pertaining to both the countries such as the pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, and India’s defence trade deals with the country.
This year, Uzbekistan is the chair of the SCO summit while next year, the international summit will be conducted by India.