PM Modi, Pakistan PM Imran Khan to walk into each other at SCO summit in Russia

The summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) at Saint Petersburg in Russia in the fourth week of July is likely to be the first occasion of 2020 when Prime Ministers of both India and Pakistan will walk into each other.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel to Saint Petersburg to attend the SCO summit, which is officially known as the annual meeting of the Council of Heads of States of the eight-nation organization. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is also likely to attend the conclave hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Though both Modi and Khan are expected to attend the SCO summit in Saint Petersburg, the prospects of a bilateral meeting between the two on the sideline of the conclave looks dim, unless of course a major breakthrough happens in the relations between the two neighbours, sources said on Friday.

The 2019 saw tension between India and Pakistan escalating, particularly in the wake of the Jaish-e-Mohammed's February 14 terror attack killing over 40 paramilitary soldiers at Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and India's retaliatory air-strike on a training camp of the terrorist outfit inside Pakistan on February 26. The relations between the two nations worsened in the later half of the year when Khan led Pakistan to launch a global campaign against India opposing Modi Government's August 5 move to strip Jammu and Kashmir of its “special status” and reorganize the state into two Union Territories.

A source in New Delhi said that any bilateral engagement between Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan at Saint Petersburg in Russia in July appeared unlikely, given the current state of bilateral relations between the two neighbours. “Unless something dramatic happens over the next six months, a bilateral meeting between the two Prime Ministers on the sideline of then SCO summit in Russia appears unlikely,” he told the DH.

The SCO summit will be held several months before Government of India will host the annual meeting of the bloc's Council of Heads of Governments – possibly in November.

The SCO – perceived as a counterweight to NATO – is led by China and Russia. It admitted India and Pakistan as full members in 2017.

Though Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan are the Heads of the Governments of their respective countries, they have been attending the SCO summits or the annual meetings of the Council of Heads of State, not the annual meetings of the Council of Heads of Governments.

The Council of Heads of States is the “supreme decision-making body” of the SCO. It meets once a year and adopts decisions and guidelines on all important matters of the organisation.

Modi and Khan attended the last SCO summit held at Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan in June 2019, although they had no bilateral meeting on the sideline of the meet.

The Council of Heads of Government of the SCO too meets once a year and discusses the multilateral cooperation strategy and priority areas of the bloc, apart from approving annual budget of the organisation.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh represented Government of India in the last annual meeting of the SCO Heads of Governments held at Tashkent in Uzbekistan on November 1 and 2. A senior diplomat represented Government of Pakistan in the same meeting.

Another source in New Delhi said that although India, being the host, would have to invite all SCO members, including Pakistan, to attend the annual meeting of the Heads of Governments, Prime Minister of the neighbouring country might not come to attend it. He instead might send a minister or a senior official to lead the delegation of Pakistan Government, he added.