India to host SCO Summit in virtual format on 4 July

India has decided to host the Shanghai Cooperation Summit (SCO) summit in virtual format on 4 July 2023. The decision came as a surprise to many as the leaders of all SCO countries were expected to attend the summit physically in New Delhi like the SCO Foreign Minister's meeting which was conducted in Goa earlier this month.

The Ministry of External Affairs announced on Tuesday, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair the 22nd SCO summit on 4 July, which will be held in a 'virtual format'. The ministry gave no further detail on the reason for the decision.

The people familiar with the matter said that the decision was made after consultations in the previous few days and the option of hosting the SCO summit in a virtual format was always on the table.

“The leaders of China and Russia are anyway expected to visit India for the G20 Summit in New Delhi in September,” one of the people said, according to the news platform Hindustan Times.

Notably, an in-person SCO summit would have seen Russian President Vladimir Putin traveling to India amid the Russia-Ukraine war. Moreover, the heads of China and Pakistan were also expected to visit New Delhi for the SCO summit and India is currently having strained relations with both nations.

Earlier, during the SCO Foreign Minister's Summit in Goa on 5 May, Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari became the first Pakistan minister to travel to India in 12 years.

The heads of SCO member states- China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan are invited by India for the 22nd summit of the SCO Council of Heads of State. India has also invited Iran, Belarus, and Mongolia as observer states and Turkmenistan was invited as the guest of the chair.

The theme of the summit is “Towards a SECURE SCO.” SECURE is an acronym that stands for security, economy and trade, connectivity, unity, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, and environment.