India will host the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the virtual format on July 4. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced this on Tuesday but it did not cite reasons for holding the summit in virtual mode.
Last year, the in-person SCO summit took place in the Uzbek city of Samarkand that was attended by all top leaders of the grouping including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Xinping.
India assumed the rotating chairmanship of the SCO at the Samarkand Summit on September 16 last year.
“Under India’s first-ever chairmanship, the 22nd summit of the SCO Council of Heads of State will be held in the virtual format on July 4, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” the MEA said in a statement. India hosted the foreign ministers of the SCO at a two-day conclave in Goa earlier this month. All the SCO member states — China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — have been invited to attend the summit, the MEA said.
“In addition, Iran, Belarus and Mongolia have been invited as observer states. As per SCO tradition, Turkmenistan has also been invited as the guest of the chair,” it said.
The SCO is an influential economic and security bloc and has emerged as one of the largest trans-regional international organisations.
