India to attend SCO foreign ministers meet, Afghanistan conference in Uzbekistan

India is due to attend two key meetings next week, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation or SCO foreign ministers meet and an international conference on Afghanistan in Uzbekistan. While the conference on Afghanistan will take place on 25th and 26th July at the level of Special Envoys on Afghanistan, the foreign minister meeting will take place on 28th and 29th July. Taliban will also take part in what is officially known as International Conference "Afghanistan: security and economic development".

The meet is expected to see participation of delegations from more than 20 countries and international organisations. Uzbekistan, a country that shares land border with Afghanistan has in the past hosted key meetings on Afghanistan, one in 2018 and another in 2021. The 2021 meeting, which focused on regional connectivity between South and Central Asia, saw participation of the then Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

India's External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar will be attending the SCO foreign ministers' meet. SCO is more than a two-decade-old grouping that includes Russia, China, India, Pakistan and 4 central Asian countries -- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

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Uzbekistan is the chair of the grouping for this year and holds all major events. Next month, Uzbekistan will hold SCO interior and defense ministers meet. In September, the country will be holding the summit level meeting in which all the leaders are expected to be present in person, including Indian PM Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese president Xi Jinping.

On the sidelines of the foreign and the summit level meetings, number of bilaterals are expected and no official confirmation has been given so far on any meetings between India and China or India and Pakistan. The summit level meeting will be important for India as the chairmanship of the grouping is handed over to New Delhi, which means it will be holding all key meetings of the grouping for next one year.

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