New Delhi: Even as foreign secretary S Jaishankar left for Seoul on Wednesday ahead of crucial NSG plenary meet for making a strong case for India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will be in Tashkent today for SCO summit, will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
PM Modi is likley to have a bilateral meeting with the Chinese President on the sidelines of summit and is expected to seek China's support for India's membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
The NSG plenary is likely take a call on India's membership on Friday.
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Meanwhile, China has confirmed that unofficial discussions are on regarding India's possible inclusion in the elite grouping.
"NSG members had three rounds of unofficial discussions on India and Pakistan's membership in the grouping," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told PTI.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will arrive in Tashkent on Thursday to attend the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a China-dominated six-nation grouping, which is likely to focus on exploring ways to enhance security cooperation to combat terrorism.
India, along with Pakistan, is set to be inducted as full members into the bloc which mainly deals with issues relating to security and defence.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the two-day 16th annual summit of bloc to be held in the Uzbek capital. Pakistan will be represented by President Mamnoon Hussain.
In the SCO summit, the leaders are expected to explore ways to deepen security cooperation and intelligence sharing. Membership of the grouping will help India have a greater say in issues relating to security and defence.
Ensuring peace, stability and security in the region, building a just and rational international political and economic order and combating terrorism and extremism have been the major focus areas of the SCO in the last few years.
With majority of the SCO countries having huge reserves of oil and gas, India is expected to get greater access to major hydrocarbon projects in Central Asia after its entry into the bloc.
The SCO had set the ball rolling to make India a member of the bloc during its summit in Ufa, Russia in July last year when administrative hurdles were cleared to grant membership to India, Pakistan and Iran. SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the Presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Russia has been favouring permanent SCO membership for India while China pushed for induction of Pakistan.
