At SCO Summit, Modi Announces G20 Meeting of India, Russia, and China To Plan Collaboration

June 14, 2019 (EIRNS)—One of the more striking aspects of today’s 19th Leaders’ Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan was the announcement by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet at on the sidelines of June 28-29 G20 summit in Osaka, Japan.

Following Modi’s meeting with President Vladimir Putin, Indian Foreign Minister Vijay Gokhale confirmed that their meeting was planned, and RT quoted Modi saying “I hope we’ll soon get together in Japan. I also think that we should hold talks in the RIC (Russia-India-China) format there,” stating that such trilateral meetings should also be held on other international platforms. The Russia-India-China format had first been dubbed the “strategic triangle” by then Russian Prime Minister Yevgeni Primakov in December 1999.

Gokhale also reported that at President Putin’s invitation, Modi will attend the early-September meeting of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, as Putin’s special guest—an invitation Modi warmly accepted. Modi and Putin held a very cordial bilateral meeting, as did Modi and Xi Jinping.

The SCO summit was characterized by many bilateral and trilateral meetings among attending leaders, to discuss greater economic, security and trade cooperation.

Among the many topics he touched on in his speech to the plenary session, President Putin emphasized the fact that Afghanistan “requires special attention,” and that the SCO intends to expand its “security, economic and humanitarian cooperation” with that nation. He hailed the successes in eliminating international terrorism in Syria, and announced a renewed emphasis on “deepening the mutually beneficial economic ties among the SCO member states,” with projects in trade, industry, energy, infrastructure, science and technology.

Putin stressed the SCO’s efforts to “combine the integration processes being developed in Eurasia,” pointing to the “promising potential in integrating the Eurasian Economic Union with China’s Belt and Road project with a future aim of building a larger Eurasian partnership.” This meshed nicely with Xi Jinping’s call on SCO countries to “implement the agreements reached at the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation,” that took place April 25-27 in Beijing.