New Delhi: The foreign ministers’ meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is set to take place on Friday, May 5, but Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar’s engagements will commence a day earlier with a bilateral meeting with Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.
The venue of the SCO meeting, Taj Exotica, was still accessible on Wednesday, with TV journalists recording videos in front of its imposing gate. But, the security blanket is expected to envelop the five-star hotel and the surroundings more snugly from Thursday early morning, with restrictions on small gatherings set to keep away any curious citizens away from its precincts.
During the day, the main host, Jaishankar arrived at the hotel, whizzing past the phalanx of reporters without stopping. He was followed later by foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra and other senior MEA officials.
It is understood that the Chinese foreign minister would be arriving in Delhi on Thursday morning and then travelling to Goa. He is likely to hold a meeting with Jaishankar ahead of the official dinner on Thursday evening.
The last time that the two met was in New Delhi on the sidelines of the G-20 foreign ministers meeting. Qin will be travelling to Islamabad immediately after completing the SCO meeting on Friday.
Jaishankar may also be meeting Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov bilaterally on Thursday.
He is scheduled to hold talks with the SCO secretary general Zhang Ming of China and the Uzbekistan foreign minister Baxtiyor Saidov.
He will meet the SCO secretary general in the first half, and the meetings with the three foreign ministers will happen post lunch.
Pakistan foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will be attending the dinner and the SCO meetings, but as of now, a formal meeting with Jaishankar is not likely to take place. As host, Jaishankar will certainly be exchanging pleasantries with the visiting Pakistani minister, but any more substantive encounter is unlikely to be made public.
In both countries, the governments will be facing general elections in less than a year, which makes any major thaw in bilateral relations implausible.