External affairs minister S Jaishankar today left for Moscow to represent India at the meeting of Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to be held on 9-10 September.
The meeting will review the preparations for the forthcoming SCO summit and also exchange views on international and regional issues. the External Affairs Ministry said. The visit comes shortly after defence minister Rajnath Singh attended the SCO defence ministers’ meeting in Moscow and held bilateral talks with his Chinese counterpart on the border stand-off between the two countries.
Jaishankar also is expected to meet his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi to discuss the border tensions which have given a big blow to ties between the two countries. Only yesterday, Jaishankar described the situation at the LAC “very serious”, saying it needed “very very deep political conversation.”
On his way to Moscow, Jaishankar made a brief halt at Tehran this morning and met his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif. Last week, the defence minister had made a stopover at Tehran on his way back from Moscow and discussed regional security issues and the situation in Afghanistan with the Iranian leadership.
Meanwhile, Roman Babushkin, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Russian Embassy in New Delhi confirmed that Jaishankar would hold bilateral talks with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow on the margins of the SCO meet. He clarified that no bilateral issues would be allowed to be raised at the SCO meet, hoping India and China find a peaceful solution to their border row as responsible international players.