Chinese PM to attend SCO heads of govt meet hosted by India

BEIJING: China on Thursday announced that Premier Li Keqiang will attend the 19th meeting of the council of the heads of government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states to be held under India’s chairmanship on Monday.

India will host the virtual meeting of the Heads of the Government of the eight-member bloc on November 30.Premier Li will take part in the Heads of the Government meeting, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian announced at a media briefing in Beijing.

Zhao said Li and other leaders will hold in-depth communication and exchange on deepening SCO cooperation amid the COVID-19 pandemic.They will also build more consensus on cooperation and formulate more practical measures to seek greater synergy between the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperation and national development strategies and regional cooperation initiatives, he said.They will also discuss measures to enhance economic, trade, investment, production capacity, connectivity, culture and people to people cooperation, push national economic recovery, improve people’s livelihood and promote faster and better development of SCO, he said.On November 10, Russia organised the heads of state summit of the SCO through a video link which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping among others.