PM Modi to leave for SCO summit today; will meet Russian Prez Putin

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will reach Uzbekistan's Samarkand in the evening

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit. The PM will reach Uzbekistan's Samarkand on Thursday evening, media reports stated. 

Putin will discuss Russian-Indian cooperation within the UN and G20 with PM Modi during the SCO meeting, Russian Presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said, reported news agency TASS. This would be the first time that PM Modi and Putin will hold face-to-face bilateral talks since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“A conversation on 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,” Ushakov said, reported TASS.

He added, “This is particularly important because India will preside in the UN Security Council in December, and in 2023, India will lead the SCO and also chair the G20.”

The Kremlin in a statement over the two leaders' meeting said, "There are plans to discuss issues of 'saturation' of the Indian market with Russian fertilizers and bilateral food supplies."

This comes after the two leaders spoke to each other on July 1 and reviewed the implementation of the decisions taken during President Putin’s visit to India in December 2021.

While Russia has announced that Modi and Putin will meet, reports stated that there are no indications of the PM to have any structured conversation with China and Pakistan.

The summit also comes two days after India and China completed disengagement at Ladakh's Gogra-Hotsprings PP15, raising expectations that the two leaders will possibly hold a bilateral. However, if not bilateral, PM Modi and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping will possibly have a short conversation, reported Ndtv.