New Delhi: Chinese President Xi Jinping is likely to personally welcome Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, scheduled for next week, according to a report by the news agency Reuters.
This gesture underscores the significance of the gathering amid shifting geopolitical dynamics in the region. Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Modi last shared a stage at the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, in 2024, where President Putin was also present.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who was on an official visit to India from August 18-19, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and handed over a message and an invitation from President Xi Jinping for the SCO Summit in Tianjin, China.
In addition to Prime Minister Modi and President Putin, leaders from Central Asia, the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia have been invited to the SCO Summit, which will be held in the northern port city of Tianjin on 31 August and 1 September. This will mark the fifth time China has hosted the annual SCO summit.
More than 20 world leaders have been invited to the SCO simmit. The visit will be Prime Minister Modi’s first visit to China in over seven years.
Prime Minister Modi will also hold bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit. He will depart China after the summit concludes, while President Putin will remain to attend the World War II military parade in Beijing later in the week.
PM Modi had expressed support for China's Presidency of the SCO Summit and said that he looked forward to meeting President Xi in Tianjin. PM underlined that stable, predictable, and constructive ties between India and China will contribute significantly to regional and global peace and prosperity, an official statement issued by PMO read.
