China will support India for the presidency next year: Xi Jinping

China will back India for the presidency next year, Xi Jinping said on Friday, shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Uzbekistan. The Chinese president congratulated New Delhi on hosting the summit next year, saying, “We will support India for its presidency next year.” Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi later in the day, also congratulated India on assuming the presidency.

In his speech, Xi emphasised the importance of world leaders “working together to promote the development of the international order in more just and rational directions.” He also told the summit to “abandon zero-sum games and bloc politics” and to “uphold the international system with the United Nations at its core.”

This is the first time the two world leaders, Xi Jinping and PM Modi, have met since the countries were locked in a standoff following skirmishes at their shared border in 2020. Several rounds of high-level talks have taken place since then, and New Delhi and Beijing recently completed disengagement at a critical point in Ladakh. It has not yet been determined whether the two leaders will hold a bilateral meeting at the crucial summit.

“We will keep you fully apprised when the PM’s schedule of bilateral meetings unfolds,” foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra had said when asked about the meeting Among other issues, India and SCO member states are expected to discuss energy security at the summit, which coincides with a sharp rise in Indian imports of Russian oil, coal and fertiliser, news agency Reuters reported.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, comprised of China, India, Pakistan, Russia, and the ex-Soviet Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, was established in 2001 as a rival political, economic, and security organisation.