NEW DELHI: PM Narendra Modi is likely to skip the SCO summit which will be hosted by Kazakhstan in Astana on July 3-4, official sources said.
Given the state of relations with both countries, Modi perhaps won't mind not having any sort of engagement with Xi and Sharif.
India, however, has said in the past it attaches great importance to SCO for peace, stability and economic development of the region.
Modi had in 2018 coined the SECURE acronym that stands for Security; Economy and Trade; Connectivity; Unity; Respect for Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity; and Environment.
The SCO summit was hosted by India last year but in a virtual mode.
NEW DELHI: PM Narendra Modi is likely to skip the SCO summit which will be hosted by Kazakhstan in Astana on July 3-4, official sources said. The PM has in the past regularly participated in the Eurasian bloc's summit meetings but the fact that Parliament session will continue till July 3 is believed to be one of the reasons for Modi deciding to give it a miss this time.
Apart from having a possible bilateral with President Vladimir Putin, Modi was also expected to come face to face with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif at the summit for the first time since taking over as PM for the third time earlier this month.
Given the state of relations with both countries, Modi perhaps won't mind not having any sort of engagement with Xi and Sharif. India, however, has said in the past it attaches great importance to SCO for peace, stability and economic development of the region.
Modi had in 2018 coined the SECURE acronym that stands for Security; Economy and Trade; Connectivity; Unity; Respect for Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity; and Environment. Despite its full membership of SCO, India remains an outlier in the group in the sense that it's the only member to not endorse China's BRI and to not have any bilateral engagement with Pakistan. India has used the SCO platform to repeatedly remind member-states, particularly Pakistan and China, that one of the original mandates of the group was to fight terrorism and that connectivity initiatives must respect sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states.
The SCO summit was hosted by India last year but in a virtual mode. India held the SCO chairmanship last year.
