Sushma Swaraj to visit China, Mongolia this month

New Delhi April 12 (IANS) External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will visit China where she will attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Ministerial Meeting and then Mongolia later this month a senior official said on Thursday.

"First she will go to China for SCO Ministerial Meeting and from there she will be travelling to Mongolia for Foreign Minister-level talks " External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in his weekly media briefing here.

Kumar said that Sushma Swaraj will be in China on April 22-23 and then in Mongolia on April 24-25 April.

The SCO is a Eurasian intergovernmental organisation the creation of which was announced in 2001 in Shanghai by Kazakhstan China Kyrgyzstan Russia Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It was preceded by the Shanghai Five mechanism.

India along with Pakistan were granted full member status at the SCO summit in Astana Kazakhstan in June last year which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

According to media reports Sushma Swaraj is likely to have a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the margins of the SCO meeting.

--IANS
ab/nir