Bishkek: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday met Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Bishkek.The Indian prime minister arrived in the Kyrgyz capital on June 13 for the SCO summit, the first multilateral engagement post his re-election. The SCO is a China-led eight-member economic and security bloc with India and Pakistan being admitted to the grouping in 2017.‘Extremely fruitful meet’ with Xi“Deepening friendship with China. PM @narendramodi’s first meeting on the sidelines of the SCO Summit is with President Xi Jinping. Both leaders are discussing ways to further strengthen bilateral relations,” the Prime Minister’s Office tweeted.During talks with Chinese President Xi, Modi raised the issue of cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan and said India expects “concrete action” by Islamabad to create an atmosphere free of terror for the resumption of dialogue.This is the first meeting between the two leaders after Modi’s re-election following the stunning victory of the BJP in the general elections last month.The meeting also comes a month after the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the powerful UN Security Council designated Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist after China, Pakistan’s closest ally, lifted its technical hold on the proposal to blacklist him.Briefing the reporters after the meeting, foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale said that there was a brief discussion on Pakistan during the talks between the two leaders.He said India has a consistent position with respect to Pakistan that it wants peaceful relations with Islamabad.“Had an extremely fruitful meeting with President Xi. Our talks included the full spectrum of India-China relations. We shall continue working together to improve economic and cultural ties between our nations,” Modi tweeted after the delegation-level talks with Xi.India-China tiesAhead of the meeting, China hinted that President Xi would highlight the need to forge a united front against US President Donald Trump’s policies of trade protectionism and unilateralism using tariffs as a weapon.China and the US have been in an escalating conflict over trade for the past year. The scope of the battle has expanded in recent months as Washington has tightened trade restrictions on Chinese telecom giant Huawei.Chinese officials hope that India, which is also facing trade frictions with the US specially over termination of its designation as a ‘beneficiary developing country’ under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), would join the fight against Trump’s protectionist policies.Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Photo: ReutersLast month, Xi extended his “heartfelt congratulations” to Prime Minister Modi for winning the general elections, in a rare gesture of greeting a foreign leader well before the official announcement of the results.The economic and commercial engagement between India and China constitutes a major component of the bilateral relations with bilateral trade which crossed $95 billion last year and is set to cross $100 billion this year.The two leaders have met more than 10 times in the last five years, including thrice after their informal summit in the Chinese city of Wuhan in April, 2018 – first at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit held in June last in China’s Qingdao, the second time at the BRICS summit in South Africa’s Johannesburg in July and third time in December last on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Argentina.The Wuhan summit between Prime Minister Modi and President Xi was largely credited to have turned around the bilateral relations soured by the 73-day Doklam standoff, triggered by Chinese troops attempts to build a road close to Indian border in an area also claimed by Bhutan in 2017.After the Wuhan summit, both the countries stepped up efforts to improve relations on different spheres including the military-to-military ties.Last month, the 1267 al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the powerful UN Security Council designated Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist after veto-wielding permanent member China lifted its technical hold on the proposal by the US, the UK and France to blacklist him.It was a huge diplomatic victory for India after a decade of relentless efforts to ban the mastermind of several terror attacks against India, including the deadly Pulwama attack against Indian security forces.Meeting with PutinLater, Modi also met Russian President Vladimir Putin and the two leaders reviewed all aspects of bilateral relations to further strengthen the bilateral strategic relationship.“A special partner, a privileged relationship! PM @narendramodi met with @KremlinRussia_E Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of #SCOSummit in #Bishkek. Reviewed all aspects of bilateral relations to further strengthen the strategic relationship,” External Affairs Ministry (MEA) spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: ReutersEarlier in October, President Putin travelled to India for the 19th India-Russia annual summit during which he held comprehensive discussions with Modi on wide-ranging bilateral, regional and international issues.Russia has been one of India’s key suppliers of arms and ammunition.Prime Minister Modi, President Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a trilateral meeting, the second among the three countries after a gap of 12 years, on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires in December during which they underscored the benefits of a multilateral trading system and an open world economy for global growth and prosperity.
