New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will travel to the Uzbek capital Tashkent on a two-day visit beginning Thursday to attend a foreign ministerial conclave of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and their Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto are also expected to attend the SCO meet.
It is expected that Jaishankar will have bilateral meetings with some of his counterparts from the SCO nations including Wang and Lavrov.
Announcing Jaishankar's visit, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the SCO foreign ministers' meeting will deliberate on the SCO summit in September scheduled for September 15-16 in Samarkand.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to travel to Uzbekistan to attend the summit.
"External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will visit Uzbekistan on July 28-29 at the invitation of Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan Vladimir Norov to take part in the meeting of the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers," the MEA said in a statement.
"The meeting will discuss preparations for the upcoming meeting of the Council of Heads of State on September 15-16 in Samarkand," it said.
The MEA said the foreign ministers will review ongoing cooperation in the expansion of the SCO and exchange ideas on regional and global developments of common concern.
What is the SCO?
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation, the creation of which was announced on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai (China) by the Republic of Kazakhstan, the People's Republic of China, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, and the Republic of Uzbekistan. It was preceded by the Shanghai Five mechanism.
The historical meeting of the Heads of State Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation was held on 8-9 June 2017 in Astana. On the meeting the status of a full member of the Organization was granted to the Republic of India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
In terms of geographic scope and population, it is the world's largest regional organization, covering approximately 60% of the area of Eurasia, 40% of the world population, and more than 30% of global GDP.
(with inputs from PTI)
