PM Modi Drops Out, Jaishankar To Lead Indian Team At SCO Summit In Kazakhstan

External affairs minister S Jaishankar will lead the Indian delegation to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Kazakhstan next month following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to skip the meeting.

The Indian side had earlier confirmed PM Modi’s visit to Astana for the SCO Summit on July 3-4 and an “advance security liaison” team had also visited Kazakhstan as part of the preparations for the visit.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told a regular media briefing on Friday that the Indian delegation to the SCO Summit will be led by Jaishankar. He didn’t give any other details.

While the Indian side has not officially stated the reasons for the prime minister’s decision to skip the summit, it is understood that his preoccupation with the ongoing session of Parliament, which will continue till July 3, and the strained relations with China are among the factors that influenced the move.

The Indian side is understood to have conveyed its position to Kazakhstan when PM Modi received a phone call from President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Tuesday.

The two leaders reiterated their commitment to work together to advance the bilateral strategic partnership, and PM Modi conveyed India’s full support for the success of the SCO Summit in Astana, according to a readout from the external affairs ministry.

A trip to Astana would have brought the prime minister face-to-face with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pakistan President Shehbaz Sharif.

The nine member states of the SCO are India, China, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

India was represented at the SCO Summit by its foreign minister in 2014. PM Modi attended five subsequent summits that were held before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. He virtually attended the in-person in 2021 and travelled to Uzbekistan for the summit in 2022 when he nudged Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine.

India hosted last year’s SCO Summit, which was converted into a virtual event following reports that the Chinese and Russian presidents were not going to travel to India for the summit.