Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to hold a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a two-day regional summit in Uzbekistan on Friday, 16 September.

PM Modi arrived in Samarkand on Thursday to attend the 22nd meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, which is set to deliberate on regional security challenges, trade, and energy supplies among other issues.

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"Russian President Putin is going to participate in the forthcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit... We've already announced that there will be a number of meetings in Samarkand, including with PM Modi," the Russian Ambassador to India Denis Alipov told ANI.

The SCO, headquartered in Beijing, is an economic and security bloc with eight members – China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India, and Pakistan.

China's president Xi Jinping, who met with Putin shortly before the summit, was the only other leader to skip the events. Jinping said that China was willing to work with Russia to "support each other's core interests."

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What's on the Agenda?

Before leaving for Samarkand, PM Modi had said he was looking forward to exchanging views on the topical regional and international issues, as well as on the expansion and further deepening of the multifaceted and mutually beneficial cooperation within the grouping.

He also said he was looking forward to meeting Mirziyoyev.

"Under the Uzbek chairship, a number of decisions for mutual cooperation are likely to be adopted in areas of trade, economy, culture, and tourism," he said.

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Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov said on Tuesday, according to Russian news agency TASS, said, "A conversation on the international agenda with Modi will also take place, the sides will discuss issues of strategic stability, the situation in the Asia Pacific Region, and, of course, cooperation within major multilateral formats, such as the UN, the G20, and the SCO."

"This is particularly important, because India will preside in the UN Security Council in December, and in 2023, India will lead the SCO, and will also chair the G20," Ushakov added.

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