31/05/2023
ISLAMABAD: India has announced the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit of the Heads of State Council through video conferencing on July 4.
Announcing the decision on Tuesday, India's foreign ministry said the 22nd SCO meeting will be held virtually and will be chaired by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Singh Modi.
Holding the SCO meeting virtually is unexpected and the Indian government has not given any reason for doing so, leading to speculations and conflicting opinions.
Citing sources familiar with the development, Indian media commented that the decision was made on Monday and had nothing to do with the commitments of the leaders of the SCO member states.
They said that the leaders of China and Russia should attend the G20 meeting in September.
If the leaders of the member countries were invited in person, it would be the first visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to India since the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war.
In addition, there were also prospects of meetings between the leadership of Pakistan and China with the leadership of India.
Experts in Pakistan believe that India has decided to go virtual to prevent Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif from visiting India.
Earlier this month, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari attended the SCO Foreign Ministers' meeting in Goa, India, where he met several of his counterparts, but did not hold a bilateral meeting with his Indian counterpart, Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
The SCO is a political and security bloc that includes Pakistan, Russia, China, and India has been the chairman since September.
