China on Friday extended a warm welcome to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming participation in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Tianjin Summit later this month, calling the event “a gathering of solidarity, friendship and fruitful results.”
According to people familiar with the matter in Delhi, this will be Modi’s first visit to China in over seven years.
“China welcomes Prime Minister Modi to China for the SCO Tianjin Summit,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said in response to a query about reports of Modi’s planned trip for the August 31–September 1 meeting.
We hope with the joint efforts of all sides the Tianjin summit will be a meeting of solidarity, friendship and fruitful outcomes, and the SCO will start a new stage of high-quality development with higher solidarity, coordination, dynamism and productiveness," Guo said.
Guo pointed out that the leaders of over 20 nations — all the SCO member states as well as the leaders of 10 international organizations — will attend the related activities. "The SCO Tianjin Summit will be the biggest summit in terms of scale since the SCO was founded," said the spokesperson.
Modi is scheduled to go to Japan on August 29 prior to heading to Tianjin for the summit. A formal announcement has yet to be made, however, about the two-country tour.
The prime minister had last gone to China in June 2018 for the SCO summit. Chinese President Xi Jinping then came to India in October 2019 for their second "informal summit." Relations worsened after the eastern Ladakh border stand-off.
The military standoff started in May 2020, with clashes in the Galwan Valley in June of that year badly spiking bilateral relations. The face-off ended after both sides finished disengaging at the last remaining sites of friction of Demchok and Depsang under a deal on October 21 last year.
India and China have recently resurrected the Special Representative dialogue on the boundary issue and other mechanisms for interaction. It followed a meeting between Modi and Xi in Kazan, Russia, on October 23, 2024, only two days after sealing the disengagement agreement at Demchok and Depsang.
Attempts at rejuvenating relations have since comprised restarting the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, resuming tourist visa facilities for Chinese citizens, and talks of renewing direct air links between the two nations. Top Indian officials — Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval — have all made trips to China in recent months to attend SCO-related functions.
China is presently exercising the rotating SCO chairmanship, and it is not known whether Modi and Xi will have a bilateral meeting on the margins of the summit. Russian President Vladimir Putin will also be present among the main leaders.
The SCO is a great economic and security bloc, made up of India, China, Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, and Belarus. It was established in 2001 in Shanghai by Russian, Chinese, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, and Uzbek presidents. In 2017, it welcomed India and Pakistan into its fold, then Iran in 2023, and finally Belarus in 2024.
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