- The move to hold a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is practically unexpected.
- India will chair the SCO Council of Heads of State Moot.
- The Government of India has not given any reason for this move.
ISLAMABAD: India has announced to hold the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Heads of State Summit on July 4 through video conference.
Announcing the decision on Tuesday, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said the 22nd SCO meeting will be held virtually and will be chaired by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Singh Modi.
The move to hold the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting is virtually unexpected and the Indian government has not given any reason for it, leading to speculations and conflicting opinions.
Citing sources familiar with the development, Indian media commented that the decision was taken on Monday and was unrelated to the engagement of the leadership of the SCO member states.
He said that the leadership of China and Russia should attend the G20 meeting in September.
If the leaders of the member states were personally invited, it would have been Russian President Vladimir Putin’s first visit to India since the end of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Apart from this, there were also possibilities of meeting the leadership of Pakistan and China with the Indian leadership.
Experts in Pakistan believe that India decided to act to stop Prime Minister Shahbaz 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 only two with his Indian counterpart, Dr. Subramaniam Jaishankar. Did not meet side by side.