Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to meet the Chinese President Xi Jinping today on the sidelines of the SCO summit. The summit will see both India and Pakistan joining the group as full members.
PM Modi had arrived in Astana yesterday and attended a banquet hosted by Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev in which Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif was also present. Official sources continued to maintain until late Thursday that no bilateral meeting was scheduled for Modi with Sharif.
The highlight for India is expected to be the Modi-Xi meeting, the first this year. It will also come soon after India’s boycott of the OBOR conference which was attended by the Russian President Vladimir Putin.
India abstained from the summit to highlight its concerns over the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor which is part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and passes through Gilgit and Baltistan, a region India maintains is integral to the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The differences with China over the issue of India’s bid for NSG membership are also expected to be touched upon by PM Modi during the meeting.
Post Your Comments