Swaraj, Sitharaman to attend SCO meet today

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will attend a preparatory meeting on Tuesday related to the upcoming summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

Sitharaman will attend the SCO defence ministers' meeting, whereas Swaraj will take part in foreign ministers' meeting.

The annual summit of the SCO, in which India and Pakistan became full members last year, will take place in the Chinese city of Qingdao in June.

Swaraj, who flew to China on April 21, is already in Beijing on a four-day visit to finalise the agenda for the summit of the eight-member political, economic and security bloc.

Meanwhile, Sitharaman arrived in China late evening on April 23.

The two are expected to hold discussions on trade and terrorism in the respective meetings.

On a related note, the Ministry of External Affairs had earlier confirmed that there would be no bilateral meeting between Sushma Swaraj, Nirmala Sitharaman, and their Pakistani counterparts on the sidelines of the SCO.

The SCO, which is headquartered in Beijing, was founded in 2001.

It comprises of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, India and Pakistan, and aims at military cooperation between the member states.