New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Samarkand, Uzbekistan on 15-16 September to attend the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Ministry of External Affairs said in a release on Sunday.

“At the invitation of the President of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting Samarkand, Uzbekistan on 15-16 September 2022 to attend the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO),” the statement said.

It also stated that the SCO Summit will be attended by leaders of SCO Member States, Observer States, Secretary General of the SCO, Executive Director of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), President of Turkmenistan and other invited guests.

PM Modi is also likely to hold a few bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the Summit.

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“During the Summit, the leaders are expected to review the organization’s activities over the past two decades and discuss the state and prospects of multilateral cooperation in the future. Topical issues of regional and global importance are also expected to be discussed at the meeting,” the statement added.

This will be the first in-person summit after the Covid pandemic hit the world. The last summit was held in June 2019 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi are among the leaders expected at the summit.

The summit for India is important because it will assume the rotational presidency of the SCO at the end of the Samarkand summit. Delhi will hold the presidency for the year until September 2023. So, India will hold the SCO summit next year.