Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jingping will come face to face for the first time on Tuesday since the stand-off began in Ladakh in May. The two leaders, along with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, will take part in a virtual meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
Given the coronavirus pandemic restrictions, it is the first time that the SCO Summit will be held virtually. The SCO is a coalition of eight countries including India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Incidentally, an armed forces contingent of India pulled out of the SCO military exercises three months ago citing corona as the main reason. However, it was apparent India was registering its protest against China which was also participating in the drill, besides Pakistan.
This is the third meeting where we will be participating as full members, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava had said Friday last. India became a full-time member of the SCO in June 2017, at the same time as Pakistan.
Modi and Xi Jingping had taken part in a virtual session of the UN General Assembly in September. They addressed the UN on different dates.
Modi and Xi Jingping’s meeting on Tuesday comes against the backdrop of successive rounds of military and diplomatic level talks failing to defuse tension at the border. The stand-off began in early May and saw a bloody brawl on June 15 in which 20 Indian Army personnel, including the commanding officer, were killed in the Galwan valley.
Both the countries have all along reaffirmed that dialogue is the way out to break the logjam. In September, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held bilateral talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sideline of the SCO Foreign Ministers conclave in Moscow.
The two leaders laid out five-point action plan for bringing peace and tranquility at the LAC and speedy disengagement and de-escalation. At present, more than one lakh soldiers from both the sides are deployed at the LAC besides heavy weapons. Also, both the armies are digging in for deployment during the winter months in Ladakh.
The last SCO Summit was held at Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in June 2019, where Modi held a separate bilateral meeting with President Xi. Modi invited Xi for a second round of their informal summit — the first was at Wuhan in 2018 — and it culminated in the October 2019 Mamallapuram informal summit.
Moreover, Modi and Xi will also be meeting virtually on November 13-15 for the ASEAN Summit where India has been invited especially by Vietnam, which is the group’s chair for this year.
The leaders are also expected to come face-to-face at two other summits - BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Summit, chaired by Russia, on November 17 and G-20, chaired by Saudi Arabia, on November 21-22.
