- Wednesday, March 12, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Speculation is rife over Indian prime minister Narendra Modi meeting Chinese president Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, in mid September even though the Chinese leader has remained in his country for the last two years due to Covid-19 pandemic barring a brief visit to Hong Kong by train last month.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that plans are underway for Xi’s visit to Uzbekistan for the September 15-16 summit and reports are doing rounds about the Chinese president’s likely meetings with Modi and Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Earlier, there were reports that chances of Xi attending the SCO summit were slim.
The Wall Street report cited Xi’s office as saying that he may hold bilateral meetings with the leaders of India, Pakistan and Turkey besides Russia. Officials also said that the plans could change and Xi might attend the summit virtually. In June, leaders of the BRICS nations met virtually for the bloc’s 14th summit under the chairmanship of Xi.
If the Modi-Xi meeting eventually takes place in Samarkand, it would happen at a time of major global developments.
With India’s border disengagement process with China in eastern Ladakh still underway, both the neighbours have agreed that the military standoff, which started between them in May 2020, has been resolved at various points of contention.
However, there have also been instances such as Beijing blocking more than once the United Nations’ ban on Pakistan-based terrorists operating against India. This will continue to be a major irritant in the relationship between the two nuclear powers ahead of the upcoming SCO summit.
Terrorism will be a major issue over which Modi would speak in Samarkand and he is expected to call on the member-states of the SCO, which also includes Pakistan, to respect each other’s security concerns, as he did at the BRICS summit.
