PM Modi to lead Indian delegation at 21st SCO summit, EAM Jaishankar to attend in-person

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be leading the Indian delegation at 21st Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit which will be held on Friday in a hybrid format at the Tajikistan capital of Dushanbe. PM Modi will virtually join the summit of heads of state via video link while India's External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar will participate in-person. The summit is held to discuss political, economic, and security concerns and India is expected to talk about the ongoing Afghanistan crisis. This session of the summit is additionally important as it will mark the 20th anniversary this year.

India at SCO summit

MEA statement on SCO summit

As per India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the summit will have discussions on past productivity and future aspects. 

"At the Summit, the leaders are expected to review the organization’s activities over the past two decades and discuss the state and prospects of future cooperation. Topical issues of regional and international importance are also expected to be discussed," added statement by the MEA. 

21st SCO summit

India is participating in the SCO summit for the fourth time while this is the first time the conference is being held in a hybrid format. The conference will be chaired by Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, and attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and the leaders of three other Central Asian countries– Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Apart from the member leaders, the presence of observer states, the secretary-general of the SCO, executive-director of the SCO regional anti-terrorist structure (RATS), will be witnessed. EAM Jaishankar is also set to represent India in the meeting on Afghanistan of heads of state of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) on the same day.

The discussion on the Afghanistan situation is expected to be focused on as almost all the SCO members are neighbours of the war-torn country and have been keeping a close watch on the developments there. Afghanistan also is an observer at SCO meetings and it has to be seen whether it will be represented at the Dushanbe meeting. 

Earlier, in July EAM Jaishankar had met his Afghan counterpart Mohammad Haneef Atmar and discussed the situation in the war-torn country. Jaishankar arrived in the Tajik capital for a two-day visit to attend the meetings of the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers and the SCO Contact Group on Afghanistan.