India will be attending two major meetings in Central Asian country Uzbekistan — Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) foreign ministers’ meeting and an international conference on Afghanistan. Because Uzbekistan is the chair of the grouping for this year, it will be hosting all the major events including the SCO Leaders Summit.

Next month it will also be hosting SCO interior and defence ministers’ meetings.

External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar will be in Uzbekistan next week to attend the SCO foreign Ministers meeting from July 28-29. The meeting which is preparatory in nature comes ahead of the SCO summit later this year.

Agenda of the SCO Meetings

All the countries present will talk about food security, regional stability and peace as well as reducing poverty.

Also on the table for discussion will be a plan to eliminate trade barriers, development of intra-regional trade and to also digitalise customs procedures.

SCO Summit in September

During the SCO summit which will take place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on September 15-16, though not announced officially, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to go. If PM Modi attends the meeting in person, this will be an opportunity to meet with other leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping, and President Vladimir Putin.

There will be leaders of all the member countries of the SCO including the new member Iran. Member countries include: India, Russia, China, Pakistan and four Central Asian countries – Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

There are three observer states – Belarus, Mongolia and Afghanistan and there are dialogue partners including Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Nepal, Azerbaijan as well as Turkey.

Bilateral Meetings

Though not officially announced, several bilateral meetings are expected to take place on the sidelines of the foreign ministers meeting as well as during the Leaders Summit. India will be handed over the chairmanship of the SCO, which means all the major events will take place in New Delhi next year.

International Conference on Afghanistan

India will be represented in Uzbekistan at the “Afghanistan: security and economic development” conference which will be from July 25-26 by a senior officer. The meeting is of significance as it is going to be almost one year since Afghanistan fell to Taliban 2.0 on August 15, 2021.

There will be delegations from more than 20 countries from across the globe and several international organizations as it is about the security situation as well as the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

Uzbekistan has been the venue for key meetings related to Afghanistan as it is the only country in the region which shares a land border with that country. Earlier meetings took place in 2018 and in 2021. Last year’s meeting focused on regional connectivity between South and Central Asia and the then Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had attended it.