New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday left for Tashkent to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit. Modi will also be meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the summit during which he is expected to discuss India's bid for entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
A day before leaving, Modi on Wednesday night said, "India is glad to be a member of the SCO & looks forward to fruitful outcomes particularly in the field of economic cooperation through SCO," he added.
Modi said India attaches great importance to ties with Central Asia and always seeks to expand economic and people-to-people ties with the region. The SCO Summit will kick off the process of India's accession to the grouping as a full fledged member along with Pakistan.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit will be held in Tashkent from June 23-24.
The decision on India's admission to the six-member bloc was taken in 2015 at Ufa, Russia. The SCO is a regional grouping comprising China, Russia and four Central Asian Republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
At the summit, for the first time, the SCO will be expanded to accommodate new countries and make them permanent members of the group. Both India and Pakistan are to be made members. Afghanistan, Iran and Mongolia are observers at the SCO.
Membership of the SCO will give a fillip to India's energy cooperation with the Central Asian members.
Apart from Jinping, Modi will also meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the summit.
China has said that India's entry into the NSG is not on the agenda of the Seoul plenary as New Delhi is not a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
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