Kochi: Sending feelers to getting closer to take on the US jointly, China has extended warm welcome to India to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit
at Tianjin city from August 31, NDTV reported.
Welcoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said that the Summit will be the largest in scale since the SCO was set up in 2001.
Global concerns over the tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump has brought the two neighbours closer.
“We believe that with the concerted effort of all parties, the Tianjin summit will be a gathering of solidarity, friendship and fruitful results, and the SCO will enter a new stage of high-quality development featuring greater solidarity, coordination, dynamism and productiveness,” he added.
The SCO, comprising Belarus, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, was set up with an aim to promote regional stability through cooperation.
Modi had last met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Kazan in October 2024.
Modi’s visit would be a first since the 2020 Galwan clash, which had frayed ties between the two countries.
The meeting comes in the backdrop of Chinese support to Pakistan and the Pahalgam attack.
During the SCO Defence Ministers’ meet, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh refused to sign a joint statement since it did not condemn the Pahalgam terror attack that claimed 26 lives.
China welcomes Modi
