Indian PM, Chinese president to share same virtual platform thrice in November

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to thrice share same virtual platform in the month of November. 

These three virtual summits are -- Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Heads of State summit on November 10, BRICS summit on November 17, and the G20 summit on November 21 and 22.

Russia will chair the BRICS and SCO grouping, and G20 summit will be hosted by Saudi Arabia.

This will be the first time both the leaders will interact amidst the tensions at the Line of Actual Control (LAC). 

Ties between the two neighbouring countries deteriorated after the Galwan incident of June 15 -- in which 20 Indian soldiers died.

In the past, high-level engagement has happened on the sidelines of such summits. This time around, no such meet is expected.

Earlier this year, Saudi Arabia hosted an extraordinary virtual summit of G20 leaders to jointly come out with a strategy to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. Modi and Xi were present in the meet. But this happened much before the Galwan incident.

Other than SCO, BRICS and G20, the month of November will see ASEAN virtual summit from the 13th to the 15th, and SCO heads of the government will meet on November 30.

While ASEAN will be hosted by Vietnam, the latter will happen in New Delhi (and by protocol, Pakistan and China will be invited).