Due to Prime Minister Modi not attending the SCO Summit, China can again accuse India of weakening the organization.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit to be held in Kazakhstan next month. Media reports quoting sources are claiming that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is expected to attend in his place.
According to sources, Modi has decided not to go to Astana for the summit to be held on 3-4 July. However, he had earlier confirmed that he would go to Kazakhstan for the SCO Security Summit. Due to this, his advance security team had also visited Astana and reviewed the security there.
Actually, SCO is an organization formed to maintain peace and cooperation among all countries in Central Asia. Pakistan, China and Russia are also its members. According to reports, Putin, Jinping and Shahbaz Sharif will attend this summit. In such a situation, many questions will be raised on India due to Modi not attending.
However, on Friday, when Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal was asked about Modi’s presence in the SCO, he refused to say anything. Jaiswal only said that nothing has been finalized regarding this.
ormer Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto visited India for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Goa in 2023.
Parliament session a hindrance?
According to a report in The Hindu, Modi has decided not to attend the SCO event because of the upcoming Parliament session which will run from June 24 to July 3. Apart from the election of the Lok Sabha Speaker and the President’s address to both the Houses, the Prime Minister is expected to respond to the debate on the President’s motion of thanks in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha between July 2 and 4.
There was a chance to meet Putin after 2 years…
The Russia-Ukraine war that started in 2022 has made dialogue between India and Russia very difficult. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not been able to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for 2 years. The last meeting of the two leaders took place in 2022 at the SCO Summit in Uzbekistan.
Even then, most of the discussions were about Modi’s statement on war. Modi had told Putin, “This is not the era of war”. Since then, India and Russia have not held the annual Putin-Modi summit. Putin has visited China, North Korea and Saudi, but he has not visited India even once.
Now after 2 years, there was an opportunity for a meeting between Modi and Putin in SCO. According to foreign affairs expert journalist Suhasini Haidar, immediately after taking oath, Modi went to Italy for the G7 summit, whereas India is not even a part of this organization. In such a situation, despite being a member of SCO, if India does not go to the summit, it may get isolated in an important region like Central Asia, which China is keeping an eye on.
The SCO summit was to be held in India in 2023. Even then, the government decided to hold it online citing the schedule. However, many media reports claimed that India had to hold this summit online due to speculations that Putin, Jinping and Nawaz Sharif would not attend the summit. The summit could have been declared a failure in the absence of big leaders.
Restraining China-Pakistan, keeping an eye on Central Asia, why is SCO important for India?
SCO provides a strong platform to India to strongly present its views on issues related to fight terrorism and security.
According to experts, India has three major policies regarding SCO:
- Strengthening ties with Russia
- Restraining and responding to the dominance of neighboring countries China and Pakistan
- Enhancing cooperation with Central Asian countries
- One of India’s key objectives in joining the SCO is to strengthen economic ties with its four members of the Central Asian Republics (CARs) – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
- Due to lack of connectivity with these countries and China’s dominance in this area, India has been facing difficulties in doing so.
- After joining the SCO in 2017, India’s trade with these Central Asian countries has increased. In 2017-18, India’s trade with these four countries was Rs 11 thousand crore, which increased to more than Rs 21 thousand crore in 2019-20.
- During this period, Indian government and private companies also invested in gold mining, uranium, power and agro-processing units in these countries.
- Central Asia has about 45% of the world’s crude oil and gas reserves, which have not been used. That is why these countries are important for meeting India’s energy needs in the coming years.
- India will be looking to further strengthen its relations with these Central Asian countries during the latest SCO summit.
