PM Modi to attend SCO summit in Uzbekistan on Sept 15-16: MEA

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Uzbekistan on September 15-16 to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit where leaders are expected to review the grouping's activities over the past two decades and discuss the prospects of multilateral cooperation.

The summit will be attended by leaders of SCO member states, observer states, Secretary General of the SCO, Executive Director of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), President of Turkmenistan and other invited guests, a Ministry of External Affairs statement said.

The prime minister is also likely to hold a few bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit, the MEA said. 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 Vladimir Putin, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif among the leaders expected to attend.

While there was no official word on whether Modi will have a meeting with Xi or Sharif, it will be after a long time that all these leaders will be at the same venue in-person for a summit meeting.

At the invitation of Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Prime Minister Modi will be visiting Samarkand on September 15-16 to attend the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the MEA said.