SCO summit: PM Modi set to meet President Xi, Putin today

Bishkek, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

PM Modi will be meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani and Kyrgyzstan's President Sooronbay Jeenbekov.

The Indian prime minister will be landing in the central Asian country post-2:30pm (IST) and will have bilateral talks with leaders of China, Russia and Afghanistan today and an informal dinner with President Sooronbay Jeenbekov of Kyrgyzstan.

On the first day, PM Modi will be meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin. This will be his first meeting with Chinese President Xi this year and first meet since the listing of Masood Azhar as an international terrorist by the United Nations. Later this year the Chinese President will be visiting India for the second informal summit. 

With Iran, focus will be on import of Iranian oil as the US has done away with waivers after sanctions came into effect.

This is the first multilateral summit PM Modi will be attending after the elections.

In a pre-departure statement ahead of SCO summit, PM said, "We attach special importance to SCO in promoting multilateral, political, security, economic and people-to-people interaction in the region."

PM Modi will not be using the Pakistani airspace for his Kyrgyzstan visit and will be using airspace of Oman, Iran and central Asian countries to reach the country.

Air India has confirmed that the route does not cross Pakistani airspace in any way. India had explored two options for the route to be taken by PM's aircraft to Bishkek. 

The SCO represents 42 per cent of the world’s population, 22 per cent of its land area and 20 per cent of its GDP and New Delhi sees it as a platform to engage with central Asian countries.