Indian prime minister Narendra Modi on Friday (16) was found maintaining a distance from Chinese president Xi Jinping even as he stressed on improving connectivity at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit.
It was the first time that the two leaders came face-to-face since clashes broke out at the border in eastern Ladakh in June 2020. That the tension is still prevalent could be fathomed from the fact that Modi and Xi maintained a distance from each other on the platform.
The Indian prime minister reached Samarkand in Uzbekistan for the summit late on Thursday (15), the first day of the summit, and missed the dinner meeting. During a photo-op on Friday, Modi and Xi were seen standing side by side but they did not exchange smiles or shake hands, something which was not seen during their past meetings at global events.
Apart from Modi and Xi, Russian president Vladimir Putin, Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif and others were present at the SCO summit where the leaders deliberated on the regional security situation and ways to improve trade and connectivity at the grouping's annual summit.
President of Iran Masoud Pezeshkian holds up a poster of a girl's school that was attacked while addressing the 81st session of the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly at U.N. Headquarters on September 23, 2026 in New York City. World leaders have gathered in New York for the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly, with this year's global issues ranging from the threat of artificial intelligence to the continued wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Getty Images