EAM S Jaishankar arrives in Russia on a 4-day visit, to attend SCO meeting

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar arrived here on Tuesday on a four-day visit to Russia to attend a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

His trip to Moscow comes days after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visited the Russian capital to attend a meeting of the defence ministers of the eight-nation SCO of which both India and China are members.

During his stay in Moscow, Jaishankar will attend the meeting of Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) of SCO. It will be the third CFM meeting that India will be attending as a full member of SCO.

On the sidelines of the SCO meet, he is expected to hold a bilateral meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Thursday amidst the escalating border row between India and China in eastern Ladakh.

On Friday, Defence Minister Singh held an over two-hour meeting with his Chinese counterpart Gen Wei Fenghe here on the margins of the meeting of defence ministers of the SCO bloc that primarily focuses on security related issues.

It was the highest level face-to-face contact between the two sides after border tension erupted in eastern Ladakh in early May.

On his way to Russia, Jaishankar made a stopover in Tehran on Tuesday and held talks with his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif, covering various aspects of bilateral relations and regional developments.

"A productive meeting with FM @JZarif during a stopover in Tehran. Discussed strengthening our bilateral cooperation and reviewed regional developments. Thank him for his gracious hospitality," he tweeted.

The Iranian foreign ministry, in a tweet, said the two sides emphasised on their will to further expand bilateral ties in "all aspects".

Defence Minister Singh had also made a visit to Tehran on his return from Moscow and held talks with his Iranian counterpart

Brigadier General Amir Hatami and discussed ways to bolster bilateral ties and exchanged views on regional security issues, including the situation in Afghanistan.