China

India, Pak and China join SCO summit meet; ‘sovereignty, cross-border terrorism’ on agenda

New Delhi: For the first time post the Sino-Indian tensions along the LAC in May, Indian PM Narendra Modi and Chinese premier Xi Jinping will come face-to-face at the 20th SCO Staes of Summit that is supposed to take place virtually today.

For the Eurasian group meeting that will be chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin and also see the participation of Pakistan PM Imran Khan.

Cross-border terrorism, Afghanistan, economic cooperation with focus on connectivity, energy and efforts to contain Covid-19 are among the issues on top of Modi’s agenda – a ToI report carried.

While the meeting will be held virtually because of the global pandemic, it’ll mean that the 2 leaders won’t be able to have a bilateral meeting, unlike when they met at the Bishkek SCO summit last year and discussed issues related to the border.

The efforts to arrive at a conclusion post 8 rounds of talks for disengagement and de-escalation are yet to yield any result.

While Imran Khan has confirmed his participation for the summit that will be held by Russia on Tuesday, Islamabad is yet to convey to India who will represent Pakistan in the SCO heads of the government meeting that will be hosted virtually by India on November 30.

Official sources in the report were quoted saying that apart from the Moscow Declaration on Tuesday, there will be SCO statements on issues like the commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of World War II, digital economy, covid-19, countering the spread of terrorism, including on the Internet, and drug threat.

“There will also be other decisions relating to major projects and initiatives in trade and economic sphere of activities. The report of the activities of the SCO Secretariat and the SCO RATS (Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure) will also be adopted,” a source was quoted saying in the report.

India and Pakistan became SCO heads of state summit since 2017. The summit deals with all issues related to the group including political, security, trade, economic and cultural.

The annual heads of the summit will be held for the first time in the virtual format. Russia is the current Chair of SCO.

Heads of states of all 8 member states – Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will be present in the meeting.

 

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