NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to visit China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, being held on August 31 to September 1.
This will be Modi’s first visit to Beijing since 2019 and the Galwan clashes in 2020. He most recently met Xi Jinping, in October 2024 at the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia.
PM Modi’s visit also comes at a time when Donald Trump has targeted the Brics nations for buying oil from Russia and for what the US President claims is a grouping that challenges the hegemony of the dollar.
Before attending the SCO summit, PM Modi is scheduled to visit Japan on August 30, where he will participate in the annual India-Japan Summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. From there, he will head to China, according to sources.
In June, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh attended the Defence Ministers’ meeting of the SCO in Qingdao, China, where he refused to sign a document that, as per sources, would have diluted India’s stand on terrorism and the Pahalgam terror attack, which left 26 dead. Due to divergence on the issue of terrorism, the SCO decided not to issue a joint statement.
