SCO Summit 2018: PM Narendra Modi to Address Plenary Session Today; Trade, Terrorism High on Agenda

New Delhi, June 10: A day after holding bilateral talks with dozen of world leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping in Qingdao in China, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address th

New Delhi, June 10: A day after holding bilateral talks with dozen of world leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping in Qingdao in China, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address the plenary session on the second day of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit. In his address on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is likely to articulate India’s position on dealing with major challenges facing the world including ways to tackle terrorism, and boosting trade and investment in the region.

The second day of the 18th SCO summit will commence with a welcome ceremony and a group photo of leaders of the eight SCO member states. A restricted session is then scheduled which is to be attended only by the SCO members. Thereafter, a plenary session will take place following signing ceremony and a joint press conference.

Prime Minister Modi will then in the evening, depart for Qingdao Liuting International Airport and emplane for AFS Palam, where he will reach around 10 in the night.

Earlier on Saturday, two Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) were signed after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held detailed discussions with Chinese President Xi Jinping on bilateral and global issues which will add further vigour to the India-China friendship after their informal summit in Wuhan.

The first MoU was inked between China’s Ministry of Water Resources and India’s Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation enables China to provide hydrological data in flood season from May 15 to October 15 every year. It also enables the Chinese side to provide hydrological data if water level exceeds mutually agreed level during non-flood season.

The second MoU was signed between China’s General Administration of Customs and India’s Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare on Phytosanitary requirements for exporting rice from India to China, one of the world’s biggest rice markets.

Both India and China also decided to set a trade target of $100 billion and Beijing showed its readiness to open its market to Indian pharmaceutical as well as agriculture products.

“One of the outcomes of the meeting is that the Chinese side conveyed they have accepted the Prime Minister’s invitation to Xi Jinping to have a Wuhan-like informal summit in India in 2019,” India’s Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said.

Last year, China had stopped sharing data soon after the 73-day long stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops at Dokalam over Chinese military’s plans to build a road close to India’s Chicken Neck corridor connecting North-Eastern states.

Notably, it is for the first time the Indian prime minister is attending the SCO Summit after India along with Pakistan became a full-fledged members of the grouping, which has been increasingly seen as a counter to NATO. The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.