WHAT'S HAPPENING ?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Uzbekistan on 15-16 September to attend the 22nd Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit.
The Beijing-headquartered SCO is an eight-member economic and security bloc consisting of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan.
The first in-person SCO summit since 2019 will be watched closely for the possibility of bilateral meetings on the sidelines with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Putin, and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif among the leaders expected to attend.
The 2020 Moscow summit was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic while the 2021 summit at Dushanbe was conducted in a "hybrid mode".
This will be India's 5th summit since it became a member in 2017.
MEETING WITH PUTIN
PM Modi is expected to meet Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the SCO Summit in Uzbekistan this week.
Both the leaders will discuss issues of strategic stability, the situation in the Asia Pacific region and bilateral cooperation within the UN and G20, the Kremlin said.
"A conversation on the international agenda with Modi will also take place, the sides will discuss Issues of strategic stability, the situation in the Asia Pacific Region, and, of course, cooperation within major multilateral formats, such as the UN, the G20 and the SCO,"
The official Russian news agency TASS quoted Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov as saying.
India has refused to take sides on the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine since it started in February this year.
Much to the contention of the West who have imposed several sanction on Russia as a result of the war, India abstained from UN votes on the Russian invasion.
The country has instead called for a diplomatic solution to the crisis and an end to violence.
GROWING TRADE
Meanwhile, the trade turnover between Russia and India is growing - in the first six months of 2022 the figure reached $11.5 billion, adding about 120% year-on-year.
Earlier, Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had also said that importing Russian oil was part of the country's inflation management strategy and that other countries were also doing something similar.
"I respect the PM for his courage to get it (crude oil) from Russia because they are willing to give on discount... our entire import had 2% of Russian component, it was ramped up to 12-13% within a couple of months," she had said.
BILATERAL MEETING WITH UZBEKISTAN
The Prime Minister would also have other bilateral meetings during the summit.
The Indian Ambassador to Uzbekistan Manish Prabhat had said earlier that PM Modi would attend the summit and hold bilateral meetings with several leaders.
"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."
MEETING WITH JINPING & SHARIF
Apart from Putin, PM Modi is also expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.
While there was no official word on whether Modi will have a meeting with Xi or Pakistan PM Sharif, it will be after a long time that all these leaders will be at the same venue in person for a summit meeting.
Pakistan's Dawn newspaper on Wednesday reported that Prime Mini ster Sharif has no plans to meet his Indian counterpart Modi in Samarkand, but did not rule out a brief courtesy meeting.
INDIA TO HOST NEXT SUMMIT
India will also assume the presidency at the end of the summit until September 2023 and will also host the summit next year.
Apart from this, India will also assume the presidency of the G20 for a year starting 1 December 2022 and is expected to host over 200 meetings across the country during presidency tenure.
"The next G20 summit will be held in New Delhi on September 9 and September 10, 2023," MEA had said.
