Kazakhstan requests PM Modi's virtual presence at July 4 SCO Summit

Kazakhstan has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s virtual presence at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit to be held in the Central Asian country on July 4, according to people with knowledge of the matter, even as the Indian PM decided to skip the event owing to the Parliament session at home and chill in ties with fellow member China.

Leaders of other SCO member states will be present physically at the summit.

Kazakhstan has requested PM Modi to participate virtually in the summit plenary, which will last for about two hours, said the people.

Modi has deputed external affairs minister S Jaishankar to represent India at the Astana summit.

As per the SCO procedures, summit documents and decisions are not valid in the absence of leaders of any of the member states. There are plans to induct Belarus as a new SCO member at next week’s summit.

SCO hosted summits virtually in 2020 and 2021 amid Covid-19 and again last year under the Indian presidency, with full participation of leaders of all member nations.

Kazakhstan, India’s biggest trade partner and key strategic partner in Central Asia, had earlier hoped to host PM Modi for not only the SCO Summit but also a bilateral meeting with the President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. Modi last visited Kazakhstan in 2017 when India was inducted as SCO member.

Russia along with Kazakhstan had played key roles in India’s induction into the SCO, which is a useful platform for Eurasian outreach. The key focus of the SCO Summit under the Kazakh presidency will be counterterrorism, in the backdrop of the expanding footprint of ISIS in Eurasia and growing radicalisation. Eurasian connectivity will also be among the key talking points, with India expected to stress on inclusive connectivity initiatives such as the International North-South Transport Corridor and Chabahar Port.

Modi attended the 2022 SCO Summit in Samarkand but did not have any meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Later, at the Bali G20 Summit, Xi and Modi had a brief interaction, followed by a brief meeting at the BRICS Summit in South Africa in 2023.

The chill in ties with China continues, with India’s decision to allow a US delegation to Dharamsala and refusal to agree for resumption of direct flights signalling that bilateral relations are far from normal despite burgeoning trade and demand from the Indian industry to relax visas for Chinese professionals. Currently, India has restrictions on the number of visas that it issues from Beijing and other consulates in China.

China has yet to agree to the pre-Galwan clash situation at the remaining friction points in Ladakh delaying normalisation of ties. In February India and China held a fresh round of high-level military talks to resolve the more than three and a half years old border row in eastern Ladakh that saw both sides agreeing to maintain "peace and tranquillity" on the ground but there was no indication of any breakthrough.

At that meeting the Indian side strongly pressed for resolution of the lingering issues at Depsang and Demchok, people familiar with the matter said, adding that there was no tangible forward movement in the talks. The external affairs ministry had then said that the two sides agreed to maintain communication on the way ahead through the relevant military and diplomatic mechanisms.