NEW DELHI: India on Friday said the decision to host the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) Summit virtually on July 4 was made after taking various factors into account and no announcement had been made about the event being held in-person.
In a surprise development that came a little more than a month ahead of the meeting, India’s external affairs ministry announced on May 30 that the SCO Summit would be held in the virtual format on July 4. At the time, the ministry had given no reason for the decision.
Asked about the decision at a weekly news briefing, external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said the Indian side had never announced that the summit would be in-person.
“As you are aware, many international summits in recent years have taken place in the virtual format. Taking all factors into account – and there’s no single factor, it’s a totality of various factors – we decided the forthcoming summit of the SCO is best done in the same manner, that is virtual,” he said.
“Preparations for the successful organising and holding of this summit are underway and we are confident that it will produce notable outcomes and will be a success.”
{{/usCountry}}“Preparations for the successful organising and holding of this summit are underway and we are confident that it will produce notable outcomes and will be a success.”
{{/usCountry}}Bagchi said he wasn’t aware about any announcements regarding the meeting being held in a physical format. “We have now communicated to SCO partners about this event being held in virtual format on July 4 and our expectation is that everybody would be able to join,” he said.
The Indian side’s decision sparked intense speculation about the reasons behind it, with reports suggesting that leaders of some SCO countries hadn’t confirmed their participation and that there were issues related to the finalisation of a venue. However, there has been no official word from officials on these reports.
An in-person meeting would have brought Prime Minister Narendra Modi face-to-face with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at a time when India’s ties with both countries are at an all-time low – in China’s case due to the standoff on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and in Pakistan’s case because of differences on matters such as Kashmir and terrorism.
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Foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra visited the Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre, a large hall within the presidential palace complex, and inspected the facilities there on April 20 as it was being considered as a possible venue for the SCO Summit.
Speaking at the SCO foreign ministers’ meeting at Goa on May 5, external affairs minister S Jaishankar concluded his speech by saying he hoped that “we can together make the SCO...Summit meeting in New Delhi a great success”.
Bagchi said the virtual format of the SCO Summit meant that there will be no scope for any bilateral meetings.