Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Attend SCO Summit

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to travel to China in late August to participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit. The 25th edition of the SCO summit is scheduled to be held in Tianjin on August 31 and September 1. This will be Modi's first visit to China since 2018, when he attended an informal summit with President Xi Jinping in Wuhan in April and the SCO summit in Qingdao in June.
• The last time the two leaders met was on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, on October 23, 2024. This meeting laid the groundwork for disengagement and de-escalation at two friction points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.
• Following the 2018 visit, Xi Jinping came to India in 2019 for a second informal summit aimed at addressing the aftermath of the 2017 Doklam standoff. However, bilateral relations hit their lowest point in six decades a few months later, in April-May 2020, after clashes between Indian and Chinese troops in the Ladakh sector of the LAC, culminating in a deadly confrontation in the Galwan Valley in June. This conflict resulted in the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese soldiers.
• An agreement to end the LAC standoff was reached on October 21, 2024, followed by the meeting between Modi and Xi Jinping in Kazan two days later, where they agreed to normalize relations and revive several mechanisms to resolve the border dispute.

Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)

• India participated in the 24th meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State held in Astana, Kazakhstan.
• Belarus has become the 10th member state of the SCO.
• India assumed the rotating presidency of the SCO at the Samarkand summit on September 16, 2022.
• The 23rd SCO Council of Heads of State summit was held virtually on July 4, 2023, under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.
• The SCO originated from the "Shanghai Five," formed in 1996, which included China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.
• The SCO was established in Shanghai in 2001 with the addition of Uzbekistan as the sixth member.
• The SCO Charter was signed in 2002 and came into force in 2003.
• The group was expanded in 2017 when India and Pakistan became members. Iran joined the group in 2023.
• The SCO Secretariat is located in Beijing.
• Observer States: Afghanistan and Mongolia.
• Dialogue Partners: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Egypt, Nepal, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.