Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on May 4 arrived in Goa for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Foreign Minister’s meeting scheduled for May 4-5. Ahead of the meeting, External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar was scheduled to hold bilateral talks with the guests including his counterparts from China and Uzbekistan. On the sidelines of the SCO meeting, Dr. Jaishankar met with Lavrov in Panaji and the duo shared an amusing moment.
It began when EAM Jaishankar asked Lavrov if he got a chance to get a suntan in Goa to which the Russian minister replied he got about an hour-and-a-half but “don’t tell anyone”. The Foreign Ministry of Russia shared a picture from the duo’s meeting on Twitter with the caption, “Foreign Ministers Sergey Lavrov and Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar hold talks “on the sidelines” of the SCO Ministerial in Panaji (Goa), India”, with the hashtag ‘#DruzhbaDosti’; Druzhba meaning friendship in the Russian language.
Notably, this is Lavrov’s second visit to India this year as he previously visited for the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting in New Delhi in March. The Russian minister is also expected to hold bilateral talks with his counterparts from other SCO nations.
SCO meeting in Goa
Foreign Ministers from all the SCO countries – China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – have arrived in Goa and will participate in the cultural event that India has planned in Panaji. The theme of India’s Chairmanship of SCO in 2023 is ‘Secure SCO’. India attaches special importance to SCO in promoting multilateral, political, security, economic and people-to-people interactions in the region.
The meeting will be significant as it is one of the biggest gatherings of foreign ministers before the G20 summit of world leaders which will bring US President Joe Biden, Russian President Vladimir Putin and PM Narendra Modi at the same venue in September. The SCO meeting too holds special significance now considering Russia’s latest allegation against Ukraine of an assassination attempt on Putin.
