PM Modi To Visit China For SCO Summit Later This Month

PM Narendra Modi will visit China later this month to participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit, scheduled to be held in Tianjin City from August 31 to September 1, according to media reports on Wednesday.

This marks PM Modi’s first visit to China since the deadly Galwan Valley clash in June 2020, which had severely strained bilateral relations.

First China Visit Since Galwan Clash

PM Modi last visited China in 2019 and met Chinese President Xi Jinping most recently on the sidelines of the 2024 BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia.

His upcoming trip reflects a potential breakthrough in India-China ties, particularly after both countries reached an agreement on patrolling norms along the 3,500-km Line of Actual Control (LAC) to ease long-standing border tensions.

In July, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar attended the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers meeting in Tianjin.

During the visit, he held talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and also called on President Xi Jinping, along with other foreign ministers from SCO member nations.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also travelled to China earlier in June to attend the SCO Defence Ministers’ Meeting.

However, India declined to endorse the joint declaration due to the omission of language addressing terrorism.

Singh held a bilateral meeting with Chinese Defence Minister Admiral Dong Jun, where both leaders exchanged ‘constructive and forward-looking’ views on enhancing bilateral cooperation.

NSA Doval Raises Terrorism Concerns in Beijing

National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval visited China in April to attend the 20th meeting of the SCO Security Council Secretaries in Beijing.

During his remarks, he stressed the importance of rejecting double standards in counterterrorism efforts and called for concrete action against UN-designated terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), and their proxies.

China and other founding nations established the SCO on June 15, 2001, in Shanghai as a permanent intergovernmental international organisation focused on regional cooperation and security.

Its current member states include India, China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Belarus.

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