Jaishankar to lead Indian delegation to attend SCO summit in Astana

"The Indian delegation at the SCO summit will be led by external affairs minister S Jaishankar," external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at his weekly media briefing.

Written by Divya A

New Delhi | Updated: June 29, 2024 02:05 AM IST

2 min read

MEA S Jaishankar (File Photo)

PRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi will not attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit this year. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is set to lead the Indian delegation to Kazakhstan capital Astana next week.

“The External Affairs Minister will be leading our delegation to the SCO Summit,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Friday. The summit will take place from July 3-4 in Astana. Kazakhstan took over the SCO presidency from India, which was the president last year. India hosted the SCO summit virtually in July 2023.

In a telephonic conversation with Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Tuesday, PM Modi conveyed India’s full support for the success of the event.

Last year, during the virtual Summit, Jaishankar had expressed concerns over terrorism in the presence of then-Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto.

During his last 10 years as the Prime Minister, Modi has attended five subsequent SCO summits that were held before the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2022, PM Modi travelled to Uzbekistan for the summit where he nudged Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine with his comments: “This is not an era of war”.

The SCO, comprising India, China, Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, is considered an influential economic and security bloc. The summit hosted by Kazakhstan is expected to see participation by Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif.

Divya A

Divya A reports on travel, tourism, culture and social issues - not necessarily in that order - for The Indian Express. She's been a journalist for over a decade now, working with Khaleej Times and The Times of India, before settling down at Express. Besides writing/ editing news reports, she indulges her pen to write short stories. As Sanskriti Prabha Dutt Fellow for Excellence in Journalism, she is researching on the lives of the children of sex workers in India. ... Read More

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