New Delhi, Sep 8 (UNI) India will attend the meeting of Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) for the third time as a full member which is scheduled to be held in Moscow on September 9-10.
External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar will be leaving for Russia on Tuesday.
“This will be the third CFM meeting that India will be attending as a full member of SCO. Earlier two meetings were held in Beijing (China) on April 23-24, 2018 and Bishkek (Kyrgyz Republic) on May 21-22, 2019,” the ministry of external affairs said in a statement.
India has been taking an active part in various SCO dialogue mechanisms under the Chairmanship of the Russian Federation in this year. The SCO Summit will be held in the near future, it said.
The CFM meeting in Moscow will review the preparations for the forthcoming SCO Summit and also exchange views on international and regional issues.
Dr Jaishankar’s visit to Moscow will include the participation in the Council of SCO Foreign Ministers and other bilateral meetings.
Last week, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh was in Moscow to attend the joint meeting of defence ministers of the SCO, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
On Friday, Singh held talks in Moscow with his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe and discussed the border standoff in eastern Ladakh.
Returning from Russia, Mr Singh made a stopover in Tehran for talks with his Iranian counterpart Amir Hatami on Sunday.
UNI ASH RHK1055