PM Modi, Imran Khan to skip SCO summit today
Date: 30/11/2020
Vice president M Venkaiah Naidu will chair the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) Council of heads of state summit on Monday, and both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan won't join the virtual meeting.
The council of heads of state is that the second-highest body of SCO and is liable for handling the grouping’s trade and economic agenda and approving its annual budget. this is often the primary time India is hosting a gathering of the body since it had been admitted eight-member grouping in 2017.
Pakistan’s participation within the meeting are going to be at the lowest level – the country are going to be represented by parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs Andleeb Abbas. Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are going to be represented by their prime ministers.
Modi, Khan and Chinese President Xi Jinping had joined the virtual SCO summit, chaired by Russia earlier this month.
People familiar with developments said on condition of anonymity that India has usually been represented at meetings of the SCO Council of heads of state at the extent of the external affairs minister, while defence minister Rajnath Singh had attended last year’s meeting in Uzbekistan. “Since India is hosting the meeting this year, the vice chairman will chair it,” said one among the people.
In January, the external affairs ministry had said the SCO council of heads of state meeting is “held annually at the prime minister level” which India would invite all eight members of SCO and 4 observer states and other international dialogue partners to the meet in November.
Modi is about to go to his constituency of Varanasi on November 30 to launch the Varanasi-Prayagraj highway project and participate in Deepotsav celebrations at the Ganges ghats.
Though Khan has joined virtual multilateral meetings hosted by other countries, he skipped the online meeting of leaders of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) hosted by India in March to debate ways to counter the Covid-19 pandemic.
Pakistan’s representative at that meeting had created a flutter by raising the Kashmir issue.
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