Tashkent [Uzbekistan], September 13 – Ahead of the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit which is set to take place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on September 15-16, Indian Ambassador to Uzbekistan Manish Prabhat said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the summit and hold bilateral meetings with several leaders.
“Leaders of SCO member countries are meeting after two years due to the COVID pandemic. Some bilateral meetings will take place on the sidelines of the SCO but the programme of the meetings will be finalised in due course,” Ambassador Prabhat told ANI in an exclusive interview.
Responding to a question on whether PM Modi will be holding meetings with the heads of nations like Pakistan, China and Russia, the envoy said, “I’m not able to comment on that at this moment but you would soon come to know.”
The meeting with global leaders is considered crucial as the leaders are meeting in person after a long gap of two years.
Speaking further, the Ambassador underlined that the issues of connectivity of the Central Asian countries which are landlocked will also be discussed at the SCO summit.
“Economic cooperation in the SCO is an important question which of course will be discussed in the SCO meetings. When we are meeting with central Asian countries we are always discussing connectivity which will promote trade, investment others exchanges between Indian and central Asians,” he said.
“Chabahar port in Iran is a very important port. India is promoting the usage of the Chabahar port so that it becomes the hub of connectivity between India and Central Asia,” he added.
The Ambassador also reaffirmed that India always raises its voice against terrorism in every global forum and this time in SCO, India is likely to raise issues of terrorism and radicalisation with the global leaders.
