Goa is all set to host the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on May 4-5. External affairs minister Jaishankar has already arrived in Goa on Wednesday to take stock of the preparations.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov reached Goa on Wednesday morning. Jaishankar is expected to have a bilateral meeting during the day with many of his SCO counterparts, including Russia and China.
He will hold a bilateral meeting with SCO secretary General Zhang Ming in the morning. His bilateral meeting with Russian FM Lavrov, China’s Qin Gang, and Uzbekistan’s Bakhtiyor Saidov has been scheduled for the second half of the day.
The group’s meeting holds significance as it is also happening in the background of rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine, especially after the apparent assassination attack on Russian President Vladimir Putin, which Moscow has blamed on Ukrainians.
Pakistan’s foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is also reaching Goa for the SCO meeting later in the day. However, the possibility of bilateral talks between India’s and Pakistan’s foreign ministers has not been confirmed by either side.
Earlier when asked about a possible meeting of Jaishankar and Bhutto, ministry of external affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had said, “I think it is premature. Let’s see the full participation. Usually, EAM does try to hold as many bilateral meetings as it can on the margins of such kinds of multilateral meetings.”
Jaishankar’s meeting with his Chinese counterpart also holds significance for the bilateral ties as they are meeting for the second time in less than two months. Both had held bilateral talks during the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Delhi in February.
Meanwhile, the national coordinators of SCO member countries continued their engagement in Goa to talk about the key agendas for the grouping and areas of discussion during the SCO Foreign Ministers’ Council meeting.
The SCO group started about two decades ago as a China and Russia-led grouping to discuss cooperation with central Asian neighbours and has expanded both in numbers and mandate since then.
The grouping now represents 40 per cent of the world population and about 60% of the land mass. India and Pakistan became full-time members of the grouping in 2017 while Iran is scheduled to become part of the league from this year onwards. The summit-level talks of SCO countries scheduled on July 3-4 will also see Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s participation as a full-time member of the grouping.
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