Indian PM Modi to meet Russia's Putin at Uzbek Summit

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will have a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the SCO summit. This will be his first in-person meeting after the COVID pandemic and the Ukraine conflict.

He will also have bilateral meetings with President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi and Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

PM Modi is among 15 global leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, who will attend the summit in Samarkand.

PM Modi has reiterated to make India a manufacturing hub in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war which has caused global supply-chain disruptions, at the SCO meet on September 15.

"The world is overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic. Several disruptions occurred in the global supply chain because of the COVID and Ukraine crisis. We want to transform India into a manufacturing hub," PM Modi said while addressing extended format of the 22nd Summit of the Council of Heads of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Member States (SCO-CoHS) in Uzbekistan's Samarkand.

Highlighting the country's economic stability, he said India has more than 70,000 start-ups and over 100 unicorns.

"I'm glad that ours is one of the fastest growing economies among the largest economies of the world," he added.

(ANI)