New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced on Friday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be attending Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meet in Ufa (Russia) on June 9-10, where Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif will also be present; but added that the possibility of a meeting between the two leaders was yet to be worked out.
Regarding the prospect of PM Modi meeting his Pakistani counterpart in Russia, Vikas Swarup (official spokesperson, MEA), said, “Schedule of bilateral meets on sidelines of SCO and BRICS is still to be worked out.”
Informing of the PM's itinerary, Navtej Sarna (MEA Secretary, West), added, “The PM will be going to Ufa for BRICS after visiting two central Asian countries.”
“And on his way back from Ufa, he’ll be visiting three central Asian countries,” he added.
“The first country the PM will visit on July 7 is Uzbekistan. This will be followed by Kazakhstan. And then the PM will be going to Ufa for BRICS,” Sarna said.
“On his way back from BRICS Summit, the PM will go to Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in that order,” he further elaborated.
MEA officials informed that India had formally applied for membership in SCO in September last year and PM Modi had been invited by Russian President Vladimir Putin to attend the summit.
“SCO Foreign Ministers met in June in Moscow, and they had a positive recommendation regarding India’s membership to the Summit,” Sarna added.
In Turkmenistan, the PM will inaugurate the Centre for traditional medicine and Yoga — which will be the first such centre in that entire region.
Pakistan, too, has not ruled out a possible meeting between Sharif and Modi on the sidelines of the SCO summit.
"No side has contacted the other for a meeting so far. However, as you would be aware, in any multilateral setting, meetings among Heads of State and Government is a normal feature," Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Qazi Khalilullah had said on Thursday.
