SCO summit in India to be held in virtual mode

Sandeep Dikshit

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New Delhi, May 30

India on Tuesday announced that the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit to be held here on July 4 would be held in virtual mode.

The government did not give any explanation for the move, but it will avoid the unpleasant atmospherics witnessed on the margins of the Goa SCO Foreign Ministers’ meet earlier this month after Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari raked up bilateral issues, which was responded in equal measure by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

To avoid repeat of Goa meet?

• It is an attempt to avoid unpleasant atmospherics due to presence of Sharif, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping
• At Goa meet, Pak Foreign Minister Bilawal raked up bilateral issues
• The move was responded in equal measure by EAM S Jaishankar
• The SCO summit is to be held in Delhi on July 4

At a time when India is engaging intensively with the West in the hope of wresting cutting-edge technology, the arrival of their bete noire and Russian President Vladimir Putin would have complicated matters. PM Narendra Modi, who will chair the SCO summit, is scheduled to visit the US next month for a state visit.

Also, the border stalemate with China has shown no signs of abating and in this situation, the presence of Chinese President Xi Jinping would have made for awkwardness. “India remains committed to play a positive and constructive role in the SCO and looks forward to a successful SCO summit as the culmination of its chairmanship,” said the MEA while announcing that the summit would be held in virtual mode.

India had assumed the rotating SCO chairmanship at the Samarkand Summit on September 16 last year. This would have been the first summit to be held under India’s chairmanship. All the SCO member states — China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — have been invited to attend the summit.