TIA NEWS
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit starting in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on June 23.
Briefing media in New Delhi today, Secretary in External Affairs Ministry Ms Sujata Mehta said, India is looking forward to begin the process of accession to join the SCO during the summit.
Ms. Mehta said the SCO is a group which brought together countries of extended neighborhood in areas of security, Trade, Transport, Culture and Anti-Terrorism.
She informed that along with signing the memorandum to join as a member of the SCO, 30 other documents are to be signed for India to become a full fledged member of the organization which will need more discussions and deliberations on various issues.
Replying to a query on whether Pakistan would be joining the SCO, the Secretary told that India’s membership has nothing to do with the absence of any country. Cooperation on the part of the security is part of the SCO as India will also be a member of the Regional Ant-Terrorism Structure, she said.
Mr Narendra Modi will be meeting President of China Xi Jinping and the Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the summit. He is likely to take up the issue of India’s membership in NSG with the Chinese President.
However, the Secretary told that it was a mere coincidence that the NSG meeting is coinciding with that of the SCO summit.
She said that it is not necessary that deliberations of one meeting will reflect on the other. The Secretary said, the decision to admit India in SCO was made last year even as Prime Minister made an outreach in BRICS.
The event will begin with a cultural evening and a state dinner tomorrow. The Prime Minister is also scheduled to meet President of Uzbekistan the same day.
In another major devlopment, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar left for Seoul today ahead of Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) Plenary tomorrow to shore up India’s efforts for membership.
Sources in the External Affairs Ministry said India’s membership is likely to be discussed in the meeting of the 48-nation atomic trading bloc.
Sources said, membership in NSG is a delicate and complex process and it would not be wise to speculate at this point. Mr Jaishankar had earlier made a visit to Beijing on the 16th of this month to enlist support for India’s bid for NSG membership.
India has been reaching out to NSG member countries seeking their support for its membership of NSG whose members are allowed to trade in and export nuclear technology.
Meanwhile, China has said, it will play a constructive role in the discussions on India’s NSG membership. China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a news agency that NSG members had three rounds of unofficial discussions on India and Pakistan’s membership in the grouping.