New Delhi
8 Augut 2007
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will not represent India at the
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit for the third year in a row. The 2007
SCO Summit will be held at Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan next week.
Sources told this newspaper that Minister of External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee can be
expected to stand in for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the August 16 summit. New
Delhi has not made an official announcement yet.
The SCO was founded in 2001 by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and
Uzbekistan. India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan have observer status in the SCO. The US
applied for observer status but its request was turned down.
Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Murli Deora travelled to Shanghai for the
2006 Summit. The then minister of external affairs Natwar Singh represented India at the
2005 Summit at Astana in Kazakhstan.
India's low-key representation continued when Union Minister of State in the Prime
Minister's Office Prithviraj Chavan was deputed to attend the SCO Heads of Government
(Prime Minister-level) Meeting held at Dushanbe, Tajikistan, in September last year.
New Delhi has been advancing the logic that there was no need for the Prime Minister to
attend the Summit because India was only an observer. Certain analysts, however, have
pointed out that all the other observer states were represented by their heads of state
and/or government at the Summit last year. The analysts said that New Delhi's thinking
was dictated by a desire to be seen as close to the US, especially at a time when both
sides were negotiating the proposed bilateral civilian nuclear cooperation agreement.
According to reports, the presidents of Iran and Mongolia are expected to attend the
Bishkek Summit. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended the last Summit at
Shanghai. Pakistan is likely to be represented by its Foreign Minister Khurshid
Mehmood Kasuri. President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov will be a
special guest.
Incidentally, Japan, an ally of the US, has realised the importance of Central Asia and
begun engaging the counties of the region, bilaterally and multilaterally. It formed the
Central Asia Plus Japan initiative in August 2004. All the five Central Asian countries are
involved in this dialogue. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit India later this
month. He is expected to address both Houses of Parliament on August 22. Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh addressed the Japanese Diet (Parliament) in December last
year.
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