New Delhi:: External Affairs Minister (EAM), S Jaishankar is set to embark on Uzbekistan tomorrow, July 28, to take part in the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers.

At the SCO Foreign Ministers meeting, Jaishankar will meet next to his Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto. This would be Bhutto's first face-to-face meeting with EAM Jaishankar after the creation of the new coalition government in Islamabad of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), led by Shehbaz Sharif.

Jaishankar is attending the conference at the invitation of the Republic of Uzbekistan's Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vladimir Norov, MEA said. The meeting is significant because the Foreign Ministers will hold discussions and prepare for the future Council of Heads of State meeting in Samarkand on September 15-16, 2022. The meeting assumes significance in the expansion of the SCO Organization and exchange perspectives on regional and global trends of mutual importance.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will also be attending the meeting  Jaishankar may hold a bilateral meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to discuss the conclusion of the just concluded 16th round of negotiations between India and China's military commanders to resolve the standoff along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh.

If the bilateral talks take place, the meeting between Jaishankar and Wang might open the door for a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Both are expected to attend the SCO meeting in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on September 15 and 16.

According to a statement released by the Ministry of External Affairs, the 20th Meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of Government (CHG) was conducted on November 25, 2021, in Nur-Sultan via video conference under the Chairmanship of Kazakhstan, and Jaishankar represented India in the meeting.

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