First yes and now no! Why did Modi change his/her mind about the SCO summit, is Xi the reason?

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi he/she will not attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit to be held in Astana on July 3-4. Attending the first session of Parliament after becoming the Prime Minister for the third consecutive time is a big reason for this. But the real reason is tension with China. People familiar with the matter said that PM Modi had earlier confirmed that he/she would attend the Astana SCO summit. However, now he/she can send External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to represent India. Modi had agreed to attend the summit thinking that apart from the leaders of Russia, China and Iran, he/she would also meet the host Kazakhstan and other Central Asian leaders.

Modi is not able to get along with Xi

India will chair the SCO in 2023, but the summit was held in virtual mode. Modi attended the 2022 SCO summit in Samarkand but did not hold any meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Xi and Modi later had a brief conversation at the Bali G20 summit. Then there was a short meeting at the BRICS summit in South Africa in 2023.

The tension on the border is not ending

Relations with China continue to sour amid the ongoing border tension. At the same time, the US delegation’s meeting with Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama in Dharamsala and the decision not to agree to resume direct flights to China clearly indicate that relations are frozen. It is a different matter that trade with China is growing and the Indian industry is also demanding relaxation in visas for Chinese professionals. India has imposed restrictions on the number of visas issued from Beijing and other consulates in China.

Delay in normalizing the relationship

People familiar with the matter said China has still not agreed to restore the pre-Galwan status quo at several flash points in Ladakh, preventing normalisation of ties. In February, India and China held a fresh round of high-level military talks to resolve the border dispute in eastern Ladakh in which both sides agreed to maintain “peace and stability” on the ground but there has been no sign of any breakthrough.

Terrorism will be discussed in SCO summit

At that meeting, the Indian side strongly pressed for resolution of pending issues in Depsang and Demchok, but there was no concrete progress in the talks. The Ministry of External Affairs had then said that both sides agreed to continue dialogue on the way forward through relevant military and diplomatic mechanisms. The focus of the SCO summit under Kazakhstan’s chairmanship will be counter-terrorism in the backdrop of growing influence of ISIS and rising radicalism in Eurasia.