India looks forward to fruitful outcome in SCO summit: PM Modi

Ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit meeting in Uzbekistan capital Tashkent, which is set to be held on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said India looks forward to fruitful outcome, particularly in the field of economic cooperation.

"I will travel to Uzbekistan for a brief visit to attend the SCO Summit & interact with leaders of SCO nations. India is glad to be a member of the SCO & looks forward to fruitful outcomes particularly in the field of economic cooperation through SCO," Prime Minister Modi tweeted.

He further stated that India attaches great importance to ties with Central Asia and always seeks to expand economic and people-to-people ties with the region.

Prime Minister Modi will leave for Tashkent on Thursday to attend the two-day SCO summit.

The summit of the six-nation grouping is expected to focus on enhancing security cooperation to curb down terrorism.

"PM goes to Tashkent tomorrow for the SCO summit. The SCO summit kicks off with a gala, dinner and a cultural programme. He will be meeting the host, the present Chair of the SCO, President Karimov of Uzbekistan, tomorrow. After that he will be attending the extended session of the SCO. The following day, that is on June 24, there will be a couple of bilaterals as well and he will return to India on Friday evening," said Ministry of External Affairs Secretary (West) Sujata Mehta at a press conference in New Delhi.

Prime Minister Modi will meet dignitaries of several nations at the summit. He is expected to seek support for India's membership in the Nuclear Suppliers' Group, which has been actively blocked by China.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and others will also be present at the event, at which leaders will discuss various issues including terrorism and energy cooperation.

"Our engagement in these areas will intensify through this. The SCO is a major group in terms of countries that have huge potential in terms of energy. We believe, in fact there is stock of SCO energy club emerging. So we will wait and see how that develops," Mehta added.

India along with Pakistan was granted membership of the SCO last July. Both the South Asian nations are expected to join fully by 2016.

The SCO was founded in Shanghai in 2001 by China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.