EAM to hold talks with Chinese, Russian counterparts, but unlikely to meet Pak FM
New Delhi: The stage is set for the start of the two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Goa on Thursday that will be attended by ministers of the eight-nation grouping including the Pakistani, Chinese and Russian Foreign Ministers.
On the sidelines meanwhile, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar, as the host, will hold bilateral meetings that are expected to include meetings with his Russian and Chinese counterparts. But all eyes are on whether a bilateral meeting will take place between the EAM and Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari who is expected to land in Goa on Thursday.
The SCO that has eight member-nations so far namely Russia, China, four Central Asian nations of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic besides south Asian nations India and Pakistan, with a ninth nation Iran also approved earlier to be a full-fledged member of the grouping.
The visit of the Pakisani Foreign Minister will probably be the first visit to India by a high-ranking Pakistani Minister ever since the then Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif visited New Delhi nine years ago to take part in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony at the start of his first tenure in May, 2014. Ties between the two nuclear-armed neighbours continue to be strained despite a ceasefire at the Line of Control (LoC).
The SCO meeting is expected to take stock of international and regional developments including the situation facing the Developing world due to the Ukraine conflict. It will also discuss preparations for the SCO Summit that is expected to be held in New Delhi on July 3 and 4 which will be attended by the Heads of State/Government of the member-nations. India is the current Chair of the SCO grouping.
The meeting will also assume significance in the wake of the latest developments in Moscow where reports claimed that Russia has alleged an attempted assassination attempt on its President Vladimir Putin through a drone-strike. Russia had last week announced that its Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov would attend the meeting.
China on Tuesday had announced that its Foreign Minister Qin Gang would attend the meeting. Beijing had announced that its Foreign Minister would exchange views with his counterparts from the other SCO member-nations on the international and regional situation and also discuss preparations for the SCO Summit in July in New Delhi. This will also be the second visit of the Chinese Foreign Minister to India in two months. Mr. Qin had visited New Delhi in early March to attend the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting. An expected bilateral meeting between Mr. Qin and EAM Mr. Jaishankar on the sidelines is also expected to discuss the situation at the de-facto border called the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between the two Asian giants in view of Beijing’s perceived reluctance to pull back its troops from all the friction points in the Ladakh sector.
Sources late on Wednesday night said that EAM S. Jaishankar would hold bilateral meetings on Thursday with his Russian, Chinese and Uzbek counterparts. The EAM is also expected to hold a few more bilateral meetings on Friday.
