China’s President Xi Jinping will attend and deliver a speech at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) via video link on July 4, the Chinese foreign ministry said.
At the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Xi will attend via video conference in Beijing, the 23rd meeting of the Council of Heads meeting of the SCO on July 4 and deliver important remarks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said in a brief press release.
This is the first official announcement about Xi’s participation in the SCO summit being hosted by India. India, as the chair nation of this year’s summit of the SCO Council of Heads of State, announced in May that it would hold the event in a virtual format. Defence and foreign ministers of the bloc attended in-person meetings in India this year.
The SCO is a political and security union of countries spanning much of Eurasia, including China, India, and Russia. It is an influential economic and security bloc and has emerged as one of the largest transregional international organizations. The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan became permanent members in 2017. India holds the rotating Presidency of the organization this year.
Ahead of the summit to be held for the first time under India’s Presidency, India inaugurated an exquisitely designed “New Delhi Hall” at the SCO Secretariat in Beijing. While the SCO’s six founding members, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan have their halls highlighting their cultures and unique features, India is the first to add its own.
To make you visualize the depth of India’s artistic tradition and cultural identity, the Hall has been designed with exquisite patterns and motifs representing the rich architectural craftsmanship found throughout India”, he said.
Last year, the in-person SCO summit took place in the Uzbek city of Samarkand that was attended by all top leaders of the grouping including Prime Minister Modi, Chinese President Xi, and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
The theme of the summit is ‘Towards a SECURE SCO’. The SECURE acronym was coined by Prime Minister Modi at the 2018 SCO summit and it stands for Security; Economy and Trade; Connectivity; Unity; Respect for Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity; and Environment.
Kazakhstan will take over the presidency of the SCO after the July summit.
(With inputs from agencies)
