Image by kremlin.ru
The leaders of both India and Pakistan met today privately in Kazakhstan before the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Council where the two nations were expected to be granted full membership and become the seventh and eighth members of the economic and security bloc.
“Both leaders greeted each other at the Leaders’ Lounge at the Astana Opera on Thursday evening before the SCO concert,” a source told Khaleej Times.
The SCO currently includes Eurasian bloc that includes China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, reported Khaleej Times.
This is the first time the two leaders have met since 2015. A cross border incident in 2016 ratcheted up the tension between the two nuclear nations who have been adversaries for decades, since the British split the two nations based on religion.
The Chinese leader, President Xi, also told the Indian leader Modi that the two nations should ‘manage their differences’ at the summit. “(China and India) should strengthen multilateral communication and consultation, and appropriately control and manage differences and sensitive issues,” Xi said, according to a post by the Chinese government, reported Reuters.
