Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached Bishkek for the SCO summit and will be holding meetings with the leaders of other member countries. Imran Khan, however, will not be entertained.
Bishkek: On Thursday, Prime minister Narendra Modi arrived in Bishkek for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit. Modi met with the Chinese President Xi Jinping, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the side-lines of the SCO Summit.
Before his departure for the SCO summit, the Indian leader had said that on the side-lines of the summit, he plans to meet several leaders to promote multilateral, political, security, economic and people-to-people interaction in the region.
Also read: PM Modi's aircraft to fly over Pak airspace; Imran Khan still hopes for peace talks
Modi met the Chinese Premier for a bilateral meeting at the State residence in Al-Archa in Bishkek ahead of the SCO summit, he said Pakistan needs to create an atmosphere “free of terrorism”, but at this stage, Delhi has not seen that from Islamabad” side.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan counterpart Imran Khan sat across the table at a dinner at the Frunze restaurant, but there was no exchange of pleasantries.
“Koi dua-salaam nahi hua”, a source said after the dinner.
Before the summit, on numerous occasions the Indian side had confirmed that there will be no meeting between Khan and Modi on the side-lines of the two-day summit.
The ministry of external affairs said that the bilateral meetings with the Chinese President Xi Jinping, was 'extremely fruitful' and both the leaders vowed to work together to improve the economic and cultural ties.
Had an extremely fruitful meeting with President Xi Jinping. Our talks included the full spectrum of India-China relations.
We shall continue working together to improve economic and cultural ties between our nations. pic.twitter.com/JIPNS502I3
"The two leaders had a warm meeting and discussed all aspects of enriching the bilateral relations and recognised the positive role of strategic communication in deepening our partnership", said MEA spokesperson, Raveesh Kumar.
On whether he is ready to sit down with Modi at the table, Khan said, “Well, we have already indicated to India. We actually tried before the elections, but unfortunately we felt that before the elections Prime Minister Modi’s party was building up this hysteria, unfortunately, anti-Pakistan feeling among its people, appealing to its right-wing Hindu nationalists, and so there was no chance of peace before the elections.”
However, India still supports its notion that ‘terror and talks cannot go together’.
Modi in his tweet said that his meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, was excellent and they reviewed all aspects of bilateral relations to further boost the strategic relationship between India and Russia.
Встреча с Президентом Путиным прошла отлично. У нас была широкая дискуссия, касательно путей дальнейшего развития индийско-российских отношений.
Мы рассчитываем на увеличение торговых и межличностных связей с Россией. pic.twitter.com/hbUoTr1aQ9
Also read: President Xi to meet PM Modi during the SCO summit; improved relations on the cards?
PM Modi is said to meet with President of Kyrgyzstan Sooronbay Jeenbekov ahead of the SCO Council of Heads of State meeting, on Friday.
President of Kyrgyzstan Sooronbay Jeenbekov is also the current Chair of the SCO Summit 2019.
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