PM Modi and Imran will not participate in the SCO summit organized in India | Photo credit: ANI
Key points
- Prime Minister Modi is scheduled to visit his constituency of Lok Sabha, Varanasi today.
- Vice President Venkaiah Naidu will chair the meeting
- Pakistan will be represented by the Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs during the meeting
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan will not participate in the virtual meeting of OCS heads to be hosted by India on Monday.
Vice President Venkaiah Naidu will preside over the 19th meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) via video conferencing, the Foreign Ministry said.
Prime Minister Modi will not be able to attend the meeting as he is scheduled to visit his constituency of Lok Sabha, Varanasi, where he is expected to inaugurate the Varanasi-Prayagraj highway project and participate in Dev Deepawali celebrations on the ghats of Bargain.
India hosts summit-level meeting for the first time
This is the first time that a summit-level meeting will be held under India’s presidency since it gained full membership of the eight-member group in 2017, the MEA said in a statement.
The Council of Heads of Government is the second highest organ of the SCO that deals with the commercial and economic agenda of the group in addition to approving its annual budget.
The prime ministers of the SCO member states of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will be present at today’s meeting.
In addition to the SCO member states, the four SCO observer states will also participate in the summit: the President of Afghanistan, the First Vice President of Iran, the Prime Minister of Belarus and the Deputy Prime Minister of Mongolia.
Imran Khan to skip SCO meeting
Pakistani Prime Minister Khan will not attend the summit and his country will be represented by the Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs.
This is the second time this year that Khan has skipped a meeting hosted by India. Previously, it had not participated in a SAARC member country video conference held by Prime Minister Modi Modi in March to formulate a joint strategy to combat the rapidly spreading coronavirus pandemic. Pakistan Prime Minister’s Special Health Assistant Dr. Zafar Mirza attended the virtual meeting at Khan’s site.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Modi Khan and Chinese President Xi Jinping had joined the SCO virtual summit, chaired by Russia.
