SCO Summit highlights: PM Modi underlined need for peace in border areas in talks with Xi Jinping, MEA says

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar met on Monday. He said that both nations should expand cooperation amid "overwhelming bullying" and severe challenges to free trade.

The statement came amid Trump's doubled tariff on Indian goods.

On the other hand, Jaishankar said that both neighbours want better relations. "Differences must not become disputes, nor competition conflict," he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in northern China's Tianjin, on the sidelines of the SCO Summit, has begun.

The trip to China is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first visit in seven years, since India and China's ties took a sharp dive amid the military standoff on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in April-May 2020.

India and China's ties have taken on greater significance due to the sudden souring relations of New Delhi and Washington over President Donald Trump's decision to double tariffs on Indian goods, including a punitive levy for the country's Russian oil purchase.

During a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Nepal's PM KP Sharma Oli on Saturday raised an objection to India and China's agreement to use the Lipulekh pass as a trade route, news agency PTI reported.

Nepal claims Lipulekh as its own territory, a claim that India has categorically rejected as "neither justified nor based on historical facts and evidence".

"Prime Minister Oli, on the occasion, clearly raised its objection to the agreement reached between India and China to use Lipulekh, a Nepalese territory, as a trade route," Oli's secretariat said in a statement quoting Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai.

“Nepal believes that China will cooperate with Nepal in this regard," PM Oli was quoted as saying in the statement.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's scheduled bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to take place shortly.

SCO roots back to the 'Shanghai Five' mechanism when China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan came together in 1996 to deal with border security issues after the end of the Cold War.

In 2001, with Uzbekistan as the sixth member, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation was established.

The SCO adheres to the 'Shanghai Spirit', which revolves around mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diverse civilisations and the pursuit of common development.

Over the years, the six-member group grew into a ten-member group, with India, Pakistan, Belarus and Iran joining the cohort.

The two key things in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's schedule for Sunday are:

1. A welcome banquet dinner
2. Bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Visuals from the venue of the SCO Summit in Tianjin show preparations in full swing. Media personnel, officials from various countries are seen arriving at the summit.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit 2025 has on its agenda issues such as addressing security challenges more effectively and enhancing financial mechanisms as the countries seek to strengthen unity, shore up multilateralism and better speak for the Global South nations, China Daily reported, citing observers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Pakistan Prime Miniter Shehbaz Sharif, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are among the attendees of the 2025 SCO Summit in Tianjin.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday dialled Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss efforts to end the war in Ukraine, just two days ahead of the Indian leader's planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the SCO Summit.

“Thank President Zelenskyy for his phone call today. We exchanged views on the ongoing conflict, its humanitarian aspect, and efforts to restore peace and stability. India extends full support to all efforts in this direction,” Modi said on X.

PM Modi will hold a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, after the SCO Summit.

Their meeting is likely to include strengthening India-Russia cooperation in trade and defence, the US pressure on India over Russian oil purchases, and Putin's planned visit to India for an annual summit.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping around noon (9:30 AM IST) on Sunday, ahead of the main leaders' summit on Monday.

The meeting comes with a 40-minute time slot. This will be PM Modi's second meeting with Xi in ten months. The two leaders last met on the sidelines of the 2024 BRICS summit in Russia's Kazan.

The Modi-Xi meeting is especially significant amid the ongoing tensions between India and the US over President Donald Trump's move to double tariffs on New Delhi.

Russian President Vladimir Putin landed in Tianjin on Sunday to attend the SCO Summit 2025, hosted by Xi Jinping.

The SCO Summit will take place from August 31 to September 1. However, the main leaders' meeting is on Monday.

Putin had earlier said that the summit will "strengthen the SCO's capacity to respond to contemporary challenges and threats, and consolidate solidarity across the shared Eurasian space".

"All this will help shape a fairer multipolar world order," Putin said, Xinhua reported.

PM Modi landed in northern China's Tianjin on Saturday evening and said that he is "looking forward to deliberations at the SCO Summit and meeting various world leaders", he posted on X.

He was welcomed by the Indian diaspora in China, pictures of which he shared on his X handle.