NEW DELHI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th September, 2020) Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar is leaving for Russia on Tuesday, to participate in a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), ministry sources told Sputnik.
Jaishankar will make a brief stopover in Tehran to meet with his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif on Tuesday afternoon, according to sources in India's External Affairs Ministry.
Moscow will host the SCO foreign ministers' meeting on Wednesday and Thursday.
Jaishankar is expected to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on September 10, on the sidelines of the SCO foreign ministers' meeting, sources in India's External Affairs Ministry told Sputnik.
"This will be the third CFM [Council of Foreign Ministers] meeting that India will be attending as a full member of SCO. Earlier two meetings were held in Beijing (China) on 23-24 April, 2018 and Bishkek (Kyrgyz Republic) on 21-22 May, 2019. India has been taking active part in various SCO dialogue mechanisms under the Chairmanship of the Russian Federation in this year. The SCO Summit will be held in the near future," India's Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
Last week, Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh arrived in Moscow to participate in the joint meeting of defense ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
On Friday, Singh held talks in Moscow with his Chinese counterpart, Wei Fenghe, discussing the recent spike in simmering border tensions. Returning from Russia, Singh made a stopover in Tehran for talks with his Iranian counterpart Amir Hatami on Sunday.
