AHEAD of his departure for the Uzbek city of Samarkand to attend the SCO summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said he was looking forward to exchanging views on topical regional and international issues as well as on expansion of the grouping during the deliberations. Modi will join Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Iran’s Ebrahim Raisi among others at the annual summit of the regional bloc on Friday.

The Prime Minister is visiting Uzbekistan at the invitation of President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Uzbekistan is the current chair of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

“At the SCO Summit, I look forward to exchanging views on topical, regional and international issues, the expansion of SCO and further deepening of multifaceted and mutually beneficial cooperation within the Organisation,” Modi said in a pre-departure statement.

“Under the Uzbek chairship, a number of decisions for mutual cooperation are likely to be adopted in areas of trade, economy, culture and tourism,” he said. Modi said he was also looking forward to meeting President Mirziyoyev.