New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Tianjin city of China to attend the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Secretary (West) in the Ministry of External Affairs Tanmay Lal on Tuesday officially informed about PM Modi’s visit to China. He said that during the summit, Prime Minister Modi can also hold bilateral meetings with some leaders.
Addressing a special press conference ahead of Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Japan and China, Tanmay Lal said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Tianjin, China for the 25th meeting of the heads of state of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on August 31 and September 1 at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.”
Sharing information about the program of the SCO summit in Tianjin, Foreign Ministry official Tanmay Lal said that the summit includes a welcome dinner on the evening of August 31, while the main summit will be held on September 1. “Apart from this, the Prime Minister is also expected to hold some bilateral meetings during the SCO Summit,” he said.
The primary goals of the SCO include combating the three evils of terrorism, separatism and extremism. Tanmay Lal said that there exists a wide range of areas of cooperation among the SCO members. He pointed out how Prime Minister Modi has consistently participated in various previous SCO Summits – in Chengdu in 2018, in Bishkek in 2019, in Moscow in 2020 in virtual format, in Dushanbe in 2021 in virtual format, in Tashkent in 2022, in New Delhi in 2023 in virtual format.
He also drew attention to the issues that are of priority for India and were included in the theme of the 23rd SCO Summit, which was chaired by Prime Minister Modi.
Tanmaya Lal reiterated that during India’s 2023 chairmanship, Varanasi was designated as the first cultural and tourism capital of the SCO during the year 2022-2023. “All these initiatives and events have been well-received by the SCO member states,” Lal said.
He referred to the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure- RATS and said, “Security cooperation remains one of the important areas for India. India chaired the SCO RATS Council during 2021-2022. Earlier in February, SCO RATS Secretary General Nurlan Yermekbayev visited India and held useful discussions.”
The MEA official said that in recent months, India has participated in several ministerial, senior-level and other meetings of the SCO, including those in which the Indian delegation was led by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in their respective relevant SCO formats.
SCO member countries
The SCO has 10 members. These include India, Russia, Belarus, China, Iran, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Apart from this, there are also several dialogue partners and observers. India has been a member of the SCO since 2017, while before that it was an observer since 2005. India is actively involved in various institutional processes and mechanisms of the SCO and participates in ministerial meetings and other dialogue formats.
