The current situation in Afghanistan and the scourge of terrorism is likely to figure prominently during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) heads of state summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan on Friday.
He will participate virtually in the high-profile conclave and underline the dangers of terrorism in the presence of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, Chinese president Xi Jingping and Russian President Vladimir Putin. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will travel to Dushanbe to represent India at the SCO meet.
Modi’s speech comes days before he travels to the US to take part in the first in-person Quad summit hosted by US President Joe Biden there next week. The Prime Minister will also hold bilateral meetings with Biden in Washington and address the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly(UNGA)in New York the next day on September 25.
Jaishankar will take part in meetings of the SCO expected to extensively deliberate on the Afghan crisis and its internal as well as external implications, people familiar with the matter said.
"The 21st meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State will be held on September 17 in Dushanbe in a hybrid format. The meeting will be chaired by the President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lead the Indian delegation and address the plenary session of the summit via video-link," the Ministry of External Affairs(MEA)said here on Wednesday. "At Dushanbe, India will be represented by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar," it said in a statement.
The MEA said the summit will be attended by the leaders of the SCO member states, observer states, secretary general of the SCO, executive director of the SCO regional anti-terrorist structure, the president of Turkmenistan and other invited guests.
In Dushanbe, Jaishankar will attend a meeting on Afghanistan of the heads of state of the SCO and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation.
It will be the first SCO summit being held in a hybrid format and the fourth summit that India will participate in as a full-fledged member of the bloc.
Jaishankar is also likely to hold a series of bilateral meetings at the Tajik capital city with his counterparts from Iran and Tajikistan among others. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian and Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi are expected to be in Dushanbe for the SCO meetings. However, there is little possibility of Jaishankar meeting his Chinese and Pakistani counterparts, sources said.
The SCO, seen as a counterweight to NATO, is an eight-member economic and security bloc and has emerged as one of the largest trans-regional international organisations. India and Pakistan became its permanent members in 2017.