India is set to participate in a meeting of foreign ministers of the eight-member Shanghai Cooperation Orgsation (SCO) on Wednesday via videoconferencing with focus on discussing cooperation to fight the deadly coronavirus.
India will be represented by external affairs minister S Jaishankar at the meet which will see the participation of foreign ministers from the eight countries which form the grouping including Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
The conference on May 13 will be held under the chairmanship of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov.
"All member states' FMs will discuss in great depth issues including global cooperation on the fight against the COVID-19, the international and regional situations and the future development of the SCO," Chinese foreign ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian announced on Tuesday.
Zhao Lijian further said, "In the face of the COVID-19 challenge, SCO member states, upholding the Shanghai Spirit, conducted anti-virus cooperation, contributing to the building of a community with a shared future for mankind through concrete actions."
Other issues on the table during the meet are the upcoming 75th anniversary of the Victory in World War II and the 75th anniversary of the United Nations.
The focus will also be on the preparations for the SCO summit in St. Petersburg that is scheduled to be held on June 9-10.
In November 2019, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had represented India at the SCO summit in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
India is engaged in various SCO cooperation mechsms in the region to further develop multilateral cooperation within the SCO framework.
( With inputs from ANI )