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PM Narendra Modi to leave tonight for SCO summit in Uzbekistan

September 15, 2022 04:36 PM

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will make a 24-hour visit to Samarkand in Uzbekistan from Thursday night to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit as well as hold bilaterals with Presidents of Russia, Iran and Uzbekistan.

 

Refuting suggestions that the SCO was China-centric and was mainly promoting Beijing’s interests, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said the main focus is the centricity of Central Asian countries. “There is no centrality of any country,” he said while listing regional communication arteries, trade and terrorism as the main focus items of the summit.

 

Modi after leaving Delhi on Thursday night will first attend the restricted meeting of SCO heads of government summit which will include Presidents of four Central Asian countries, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif. He will then attend a slightly more open session involving SCO's observers and dialogue partners.

 

Iran’s application for an upgrade from observer status to full membership will be accepted with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who has said Asia will be the focus during his term, to be present at the summit. Raisi, according to Iranian media, is slated to meet Modi and pitch for recommencement of oil trade that had stopped under the US pressure.

 

Modi’s meeting with Putin will also be vital as both leaders are meeting for the first time since December last year though they spoke several times on the phone this year. Significantly, just over a week back, Modi had spelt out India’s keenness to expand trade, connectivity and investments with Russia. India is keen to strengthen its partnership with Russia on Arctic subjects. There is immense scope for cooperation in the field of energy.

 

Asked about the G7’s plan to put a price cap on Russian oil, Kwatra pointed out that India is not a member of that bloc. “Hence, what form it takes, what shape it evolves into, people who floated the idea can respond better,” he said.

 

 

The Foreign Secretary tried to dispel the impression that the Indian government was making a conscious effort to buy more Russian oil by pointing out that he had repeatedly said that “when Indian entities go out and try to respond to India’s needs for energy security and procure oil essentially from the market, these are not government-to-government purchases we do”.

 

 

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