India has sent an official invitation to Chinese President Xi Jinping for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, scheduled for July. However, the decision on whether the Chinese President will attend the SCO meeting is still awaited as the date of the summit has not been finalised yet. The SCO summit will likely be held in July, two months before the G-20 summit where India will try to forge a consensus on the Ukraine issue. The consensus would be difficult as prominent security issues were being taken up on economic and financial platforms. Xi Jinping received an official invite to the G20 summit in September. India currently holds the presidency for both SCO and G20, scheduled for September 9-10.
The SCO member countries are India, Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan. Founded over 20 years ago, it is a crucial regional organisation that aims to promote economic, political, and military cooperation among its members. The organisation covers over 60% of the Eurasian landmass, 40% of the world population and 30% of the global GDP.
The decision on whether or not Xi Jinping will attend the G20 summit last year is still awaited as the dates have not been finalised yet. PM Modi and Xi Jinping did not have a bilateral meeting since the standoff at the LAC in Ladakh on April-May 2020. Reports said that India proposed the SCO summit to be held on June 25, but now it wants to be postponed to July 5 as PM Modi is likely to travel to the US in June-end.
Chinese charge d’affaires Ma Jia confirmed the invite and said that she was optimistic about the talks to resolve the military standoff at the border with India and added that neither side wants a war or confrontation. “The situation is very complicated and that’s why we are having the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Cooperation (WMCC) talks and also the senior commanders’ meeting,” Ma said. “There are difficulties, but we are confident that neither side wants war or confrontation. Both sides want relations to improve. The leaders had earlier reached an important consensus. We are looking at ties from a strategic and long-term perspective.’’
In conclusion, India has sent an official invitation to Chinese President Xi Jinping for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit scheduled for July. However, the decision on whether or not Xi Jinping will attend the SCO meeting is still awaited as the date of the summit has not been finalised yet.
