New Delhi: Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday congratulated India on its plans to host the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit next year and said that Beijing would extend all possible support for the country’s endeavor to chair the regional meet.

“We will support India for its presidency next year,” Xi Jinping said on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit currently being held at Samarkand in Uzbekistan.

This is the first time that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China’s Xi Jinping have met face-to-face at a global summit since the military standoff between the two Asian giants that began with a clash among soldiers of the Indian Army and China’s People’s Liberation Army in Ladakh’s Galwaan Valley in June 2020.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday reiterated to make India a manufacturing hub in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war which has caused global supply-chain disruptions.

“The world is overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic. Several disruptions occurred in the global supply chain because of the COVID and Ukraine crisis. We want to transform India into a manufacturing hub,” PM Modi said while addressing the extended format of the 22nd Summit of the Council of Heads of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Member States (SCO-CoHS) in Uzbekistan’s Samarkand. Highlighting the country’s economic stability, he said India has more than 70,000 start-ups and over 100 unicorns.

At the SCO summit, PM Modi pitched India as an emerging manufacturing hub and urged member nations to come together to create resilient supply chains and regional infrastructure to reshape the global world order in a post-pandemic world.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the world is overcoming the Covid-19 pandemic and cited that several disruptions occurred in the global supply chain due to the Covid-19 and Ukraine crisis. He said, "We are focussing on people-centric development model. We are supporting innovation in every sector. Today there are more than 70,000 start-ups and over 100 unicorns in our country," adding "We want to transform India into a manufacturing hub." while addressing the SCO Summit in Uzbekistan's Samarkand on Friday.

The Prime Minister said that "India’s economy is expected to grow at the rate of 7.5% this year. I'm glad that ours is one of the fastest growing economies among the largest economies of the world."

The Prime Minister also raised the issue of “transit rights” of food supplies between the neighboring nations highlighting that it took many months for India to send supplies to Afghanistan via Pakistan.

"In April 2022, WHO inaugurated its Global Centre for Traditional Medicines in Gujarat. This was the first and only global center by WHO for traditional treatment. India will take an initiative for a new SCO working group on traditional medicines," PM Modi at the SCO Summit.

The Prime Minister also called upon SCO member states to give transit access to each other and pitched for boosting connectivity for ensuring resilient supply chains for the region. PM Modi's call for providing transit access comes amid Pakistan's reluctance to give India such facilities for sending goods to war-torn Afghanistan.

The Prime Minister said that India supports mutual trust and cooperation among SCO countries, adding "The pandemic and the crisis in Ukraine have caused many disruptions in global supply chains, leaving the world facing unprecedented energy and food crises."

"The SCO should strive to develop reliable, resilient, and diversified supply chains in our region. For this, better connectivity will be required, as well as it will also be important that we all give full rights of transit to each other," he said.

Prior to his address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and other leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) deliberated on the regional security situation and ways to enhance trade and connectivity at the annual summit of the grouping.

Ahead of the deliberations at the restricted format of the summit, leaders of the permanent members of the grouping posed for a group photo at Samarkand's Congress Centre. At the venue of the summit, Modi was warmly greeted by Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. "President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan welcomed PM@narendramodi to the Congress Centre in Samarkand for the 22nd SCO Summit. India has been working closely with Uzbekistan towards the success of their Chairship," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted.

India is likely to be part of a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as heads of state of Uzbekistan and Iran. Despite speculations, there are no confirmed reports of an official bilateral meeting between India and China. Neither country has confirmed any such meeting.

India remains the frontrunner to host the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in 2023, which is likely to see the process of Iran becoming a full-fledged member of the grouping initiated.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is an influential eight-member regional grouping with China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan being its six founding members. It was only later, in 2017 that neighbors India and Pakistan joined the SCO.

The ongoing summit at Samarkand in Uzbekistan is the 22^nd regional meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation since its inception in Shanghai in June 2001.

The SCO Summit usually has 2 sessions – a restricted session, only for the SCO member states, and then an extended session that includes participation by observers and special invitees.

Earlier, Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev welcomed PM Modi to the Congress Centre in Samarkand for the 22nd SCO Summit. India has been working closely with Uzbekistan towards the success of their Chairship.

The SCO Member States, Observers, Special Guests of the Chair, and representatives from regional organizations come together for a meeting in the expanded format. This is the first in-person SCO Summit after the Covid pandemic hit the world. The last in-person SCO Heads of State Summit was held in Bishkek in June 2019.

The SCO currently comprises eight Member States (China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan), four Observer States interested in acceding to full membership (Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia), and six “Dialogue Partners” (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Turkey).

The Shanghai Five, formed in 1996, became the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in 2001 with the inclusion of Uzbekistan. With India and Pakistan entering the grouping in 2017 and the decision to admit Tehran as a full member in 2021, SCO became one of the largest multilateral organizations, accounting for nearly 30 percent of the global GDP and 40 percent of the world’s population.

SCO has potential in various new sectors, wherein all the member-states could find converging interests. India has already pushed hard for cooperation in Startups and Innovation, Science and Technology and Traditional Medicine.

From the time of its full membership, India made sincere efforts to encourage peace, prosperity, and stability of the whole Eurasian region in general and SCO member countries in particular.

India to host next SCO Summit

Uzbekistan on Friday handed over the presidency of the eight-member Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to India in this historic city of Samarkand.

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev chaired the 22nd SCO summit in Samarkand which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"As a result #SCOSamarkandSummit, India will host the next SCO summit as a chairman of the Organisation in 2023. We will do our best to assist India, our strategic partner, in the implementation of this responsible mission," Uzbek Foreign Minister Vladimir Norov tweeted.

Over the years, it has emerged as one of the largest trans-regional international organizations.

Iran has been admitted as a permanent member of the SCO at the Samarkand summit