SCO Summit: Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) foreign ministers meeting to be held in Uzbekistan. He will meet his Pakistan counterpart Bilawal Bhutto at the SCO Summit.

This will be the first time after the formation of the new government in Pakistan, that Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will meet his Pakistani counterpart.

It is worth mentioning that after the formation of the new government under the leadership of Shahbaz Sharif in Pakistan, Foreign Minister Bilawal had expressed his desire to have friendly relations with India. However, there is no sign yet of India-Pakistan bilateral meeting on the sidelines of SCO in the foreign ministers’ meeting to be held in Uzbekistan.

Regarding relations with the neighboring country, India has always maintained that terrorism and talks cannot go together.

India will participate in two major meetings in July within the SCO framework. The first of these meetings is the SCO Foreign Ministers’ Summit to be held in Uzbekistan. The second meeting will be an international conference on Afghanistan. The conference on Afghanistan is scheduled to be held on July 25-26 while the SCO Foreign Ministers’ Summit is scheduled for July 28-29.

The participation of Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in the SCO Summit has not been officially announced yet. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will also attend this SCO Summit.

Jaishankar is likely to hold a bilateral meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to review the outcome of the recent 16th round of talks between military commanders of India and China to resolve the standoff along the LAC in eastern Ladakh. In such a situation, if bilateral talks take place between the two countries, then the way for a possible meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi may also be cleared.