PM Modi is likely to attend the SCO Summit, which is scheduled to be held in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) from 13 to 14 June.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s second term in office, following his landslide victory in the Lok Sabha elections, will give as much thrust to India’s relationship with the world as was the case in the first term. Keeping with this, several meetings of the PM with world leaders are in the pipeline starting from this month itself.
PM Modi is likely to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit, which is scheduled to be held in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) from 13 to 14 June. China is also expected to attend the SCO Summit and the two sides will meet for the first time after Beijing lifted the technical hold on blacklisting Masood Azhar, the chief of Pakistan-based terror organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).
Sushma Swaraj, in her capacity as External Affairs Minister in the Modi I government, had attended the meeting of SCO’s Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) and set the tone for the Summit. This was the CFM’s second meeting that India attended as a full member since April 2018. Sushma Swaraj, in her statement touched upon several issues, from Chabahar port and India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway to stressing on comprehensive reforms of the United Security Council to make it “more representative and effective”.
The Prime Minister may also attend the G20 Summit, which is scheduled to be held in Osaka on 28-29 June, sources said. Modi has attended G20 summits twice before.
He attended the 13th G20 Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in November-December last year. On 30 November 2018, India suggested a nine-point agenda for action against fugitive economic offenders and assets recovery, wherein it recommended a “strong and active” cooperation to deal with the menace of fugitive economic offenders, cooperation in legal processes, early return of offenders, etc.
The 2017 G-20 Summit was held in July in Hamburg, Germany and the emphasis was on fight against terrorism and ways to improve open trade.
The G-7 summit is scheduled for August this year. French President Emmanuel Macron has invited the Prime Minister for the summit which will be held in Biarritz, a seaside town on southwestern France’s Basque coast. Soon after Modi returned to power with the huge majority, Macron called him to congratulate him and reiterated his invitation for a bilateral meeting and the G-7 summit.
The Far East Summit is scheduled for September 2019 in Vladivostok. The event is held annually in Russia’s Far East. Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited Modi to be the “main guest”/“chief guest” during the Eastern Economic Forum in September 2019.
The event is aimed at promoting trade and joint projects with Asia-Pacific. New Delhi and Moscow are committed to multilateral approach in resolving world issues including the issue of global terrorism. The Prime Minister last visited Russia during an informal meeting in the resort port of Sochi in May 2018.
It is said that the Prime Minister might like to personally receive Russia’s highest civilian award conferred upon him in April, for which he may visit Kremlin too.
On 12 April, Narendra Modi was decorated with the Order of St Andrew the Apostle—the highest state decoration of Russia—for “exceptional services” in promoting special and privileged strategic partnership between the two countries and friendly relations between the people of the two countries.
Post the Russia visit, a visit to the UNGA may take place. The Prime Minister may visit the UNGA as India is celebrating the 150th birth-anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
Sources say that the Prime Minister may also like to visit the UNGA as a mark of appreciation for the UN putting Masood Azhar on its global terrorist list. The UN move took place
following China lifting the technical hold on blacklisting Azhar.
The East Asia Summit is also in the pipeline, which is scheduled to take place in Bangkok, Thailand. The dates, however, have not been announced yet. In last year’s summit in Singapore, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had emphasised on balanced Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. Modi is likely to attend the summit.
The Prime Minister’s multilateral visit is also likely to include BRICS Summit which is to be held later in the year. Besides, the multilateral visits, many bilateral visits are also in the pipeline.