The government confirmed on Friday (August 30, 2024) that it has received an invitation from Pakistan for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Heads of Government (HoG) meeting in Islamabad on October 15-16. However, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said it did not have a decision yet on whether India would participate and at what level that would be, even as it outlined other travel scheduled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September and October this year.
“We have received the invitation for attending the Heads of Government Summit of the SCO from Pakistan, which will be hosted by Pakistan, and on that as and when we have an update, we’ll share [it] with you,” said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal.
While Mr. Modi is technically the Head of Government, both India and Pakistan decided when they joined the regional grouping including China, Russia and Central Asia, that their elected leaders would participate in the Heads of State summit, alongside Presidents of the other countries and not the HoG. As a result, Mr. Modi has thus far deputed the Vice-President or External Affairs Minister to attend SCO HoG conferences.
In addition, India has refused to attend any meetings of the SAARC grouping in Pakistan since 2016, and it would be a major departure from this policy if the government were to send a Minister or high-level dignitary to Islamabad for the SCO meeting. Significantly however, the MEA spokesperson did not explicitly rule out India’s participation at the conference in Pakistan, when questioned at the weekly briefing, where he was asked about the Prime Minister’s travel schedule and a number of other summits.
Announcing a visit by Mr. Modi to south-east Asia next week, Mr. Jaiswal said Mr. Modi would visit Brunei Darussalam on September 3-4 and then in Singapore on September 4-5. Earlier, he was due to visit Bangkok for the BIMSTEC regional summit but owing to a sudden change in government in Thailand, that summit had been put off and Mr. Modi decided to travel to Brunei instead. When asked, officials said no new date had been indicated for the BIMSTEC summit, which would possibly be further delayed by elections in Sri Lanka and the political developments in Bangladesh.
‘Summit of the Future’
Mr. Modi will travel next to the United Nations for the “Summit of the Future” special meeting on September 22-23, and is expected to stay on for a meeting of the Indian diaspora in New York, followed by the UN General Assembly. However, the MEA spokesperson declined to comment on whether the government has been able to tie up for the Quad Summit at the same time in New York. India was due to host the summit in 2024, but owing to Indian and U.S. elections schedules, the dropping out of U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida from leadership races in their respective countries as well as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s availability, MEA officials have been unable to announce a decision thus far. This week, Mr. Modi spoke with both Mr. Biden and Mr. Albanese about the Quad amongst other issues, and sous-sherpas (point-persons) for the Quad held a meeting.
Given his recent visit to Ukraine and India’s stated commitment to assist a peaceful resolution to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Mr. Modi’s possible next meeting with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the UNGA will be closely watched. He is then expected to travel to Russia for the BRICS summit on October 22-24, the Kremlin had announced this week. On October 25, Mr. Modi is expected to host German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Delhi for the biannual summit, where the conflict in Ukraine will again be at the top of the agenda. When asked whether India would play a mediator role, Mr. Jaiswal said Mr. Modi had indicated his willingness to play a “constructive role” in further peace.
“However, it is too early to comment on specific modalities and pathways at this stage. The decision to when and how to commence peace talks is the prerogative of the two parties to the conflict [Russia and Ukraine],” said the MEA spokesperson.
Commenting for the first time on Mr. Zelenskyy’s sharp criticism of India’s oil purchases from Russia, and abstention votes at the United Nations on the conflict after Mr. Modi’s visit to Kiev on September 23, Mr. Jaiswal sidestepped the issue, saying India would only be guided by the “bilateral discussions” that Mr. Modi had held with President Zelenskyy.
