With Samarkand all set to host the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit later this week, Indian Ambassador to Uzbekistan Manish Prabhat said that India accords a lot of importance to the SCO” and the fact Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself is travelling to take part in the Summit “is the testimony to the fact that India is attaching importance to the SCO.’ Samarkand hosts the summit on the 15 and 16 September. Speaking exclusively to Zee Media’s diplomatic correspondent Sidhant Sibal in Tashkent, Ambassador Prabhat talked about close India-Uzbekistan ties with connectivity, trade and people to people relationships being the key focus.

Manish Prabhat said, Uzbekistan is very supportive of the Chabahar initiative and we know that it was Uzbekistan’s initiative when we discussed Chabahar Port with them that they brought together India, Iran, Uzbekistan to have a trilateral dialogue about Chabahar.

India is among the newest members of the SCO but in this short time, India has contributed very constructively to the agenda of the SCO, we are talking of many issues – Economic Cooperation, Diplomacy related to Covid, how to meet common challenges, Terrorism etc but has given importance to this SCO summit which is happening in Samarkand what would be the agenda and what leaders would talk about themselves. Of course, it is their prerogative and will have to wait for the Summit outcome as to what going to happen. India accords a lot of importance to the SCO and as you know that India is also the incoming chair of SCO so obviously, the summit is very important for us and PM Modi coming himself for the summit on 15th and 16th September is the testimony to the fact that India is attaching importance to the SCO., he said.