Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday reached Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, the first multilateral engagement post his re-election. Modi, in a statement before his two-day visit to Bishkek from June 13-14, said that on the sidelines of the SCO Summit, he also plans to meet several leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. "We attach special importance to SCO in promoting multilateral, political, security, economic and people-to-people interaction in the region. India has actively participated in various SCO dialogue mechanisms since its full membership of SCO two years ago," he said on Wednesday. India has extended full cooperation to the chairmanship of the Kyrgyz Republic over the past year, Modi said.
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In a surprise move, Modi government on Wednesday said that the VVIP plane of the Prime Minister won’t fly over Pakistan. Instead, Modi used Iran-Oman route to reach Bishkek.
Earlier, India had said that no bilateral meeting has been planned between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek next week.T here was speculation about possibility of a meeting between Modi and Khan in the wake of a private visit by Pakistan Fo reign Secretary Sohail Mahmood days after telephonic conversation between the prime ministers."To best of my knowledge, there is no bilateral meeting being planned between the prime minister and PM of Pakistan on the sidelines of the SCO summit," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson said during a media briefing. Asked specifically whether he was completely ruling out any possibility of Modi-Khan meeting in Bishkek, Kumar only said he was not aware of any bilateral meeting being organised between the two leaders.
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