EAM Jaishankar not at SCO Summit in China due to health reasons

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will not be travelling to China for the SCO Leaders’ Summit. He will therefore miss the important bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping scheduled for Sunday morning.

Sources confirmed that Jaishankar had some personal health issues, which prevented his travel to China and also for the first-leg of Modi’s trip to Japan.

Jaishankar’s absence was noted at Tokyo yesterday when Modi met his Japanese counterpart Shigeru Ishiba for a bilateral meeting. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) released pictures of the meeting on its handle on social media platform X.

In the photograph, Prime Minister Modi is flanked on his right by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. According to past protocol, the EAM would be positioned to the Prime Minister’s left.

Today, Modi — after being in Japan for two days — travelled from Japan to Tianjin, China – the venue of the summit.

Besides the bilateral meeting with Xi on Sunday, Modi will attend the SCO leaders’ meeting on Monday. Also, if Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives at the SCO summit, a meeting between Modi and Putin is being slotted on Monday.