Vladimir Putin, PM Modi to meet on sidelines of SCO Summit: Kremlin

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet on the sidelines of the SCO Summit in Uzbekistan this week and discuss issues of strategic stability the situation in the Asia Pacific region and bilateral cooperation within the UN and G20 the Kremlin has announcedPutin and Modi will attend the 22nd meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation SCO in the Uzbek city of Samarkand on September 1516A conversation on the international agenda with Modi will also take place the sides will discuss issues of strategic stability the situation in the Asia Pacific Region and of course cooperation within major multilateral formats such as the UN the G20 and the SCO the official Russian news agency TASS quoted Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov as sayingThis is particularly important because India will preside in the UN Security Council in December and in 2023 India will lead the SCO and will also chair the G20 Ushakov told reporters on TuesdayThe Ministry of External Affairs has not yet confirmed the meeting between Modi and PutinThe Prime Minister is likely to hold a few bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the SCO Summit the MEA said on Sunday while announcing the visit of Prime Minister ModiOn July 1 the two leaders spoke to each other and reviewed the implementation of the decisions taken during President Putins visit to India in December 2021Modi and Putin talked over phone on February 24 after Russia attacked UkraineMeanwhile the trade turnover between Russia and India is growing in the first six months of 2022 the figure reached USD 115 billion adding about 120 per cent yearonyear the TASS report saidAlso Read Putin No energy supplies if West imposes price capsIn the first half of 2022 the trade turnover reached an impressive level of USD 115 billion adding almost 120 per cent compared to the same period last year it said citing an official statementThe Beijingheadquartered SCO is an eightmember economic and security bloc consisting of China Russia Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan Uzbekistan India and PakistanThe first inperson SCO summit since 2019 will be watched closely for the possibility of bilateral meetings on the sidelines with Chinese President Xi Jinping Russian President Putin and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif among the leaders expected to attendWhile there was no official word on whether Modi will have a meeting with Xi or Sharif it will be after a long time that all these leaders will be at the same venue in person for a summit meetingPakistans Dawn newspaper on Wednesday reported that Prime Minishyster Sharif has no plans to meet his Indian counterpart Modi in Samarkand but did not rule out a brief courtesy meetingNo meeting is envisaged with the Indian prime minishyster Foreign Office spokesman Asim Iftikhar told the newspaperA Pakistani official when contacted by the newspaper said though a brief courtesy meeting between the two was possible they would not be holding talks saying none of the two sides have sought a meetingThis will be the first inperson summit after June 2019 when the SCO summit was held in Bishkek KyrgyzstanThe 2020 Moscow summit was held virtually due to the Covid19 pandemic while the 2021 summit at Dushanbe was conducted in a hybrid modeThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever