TASHKENT: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh paid floral tributes to former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri at his memorial in Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent on Friday.
Taking to Twitter, Singh said that Shastri infused new energy into the country through his strong will and determination while serving as the Prime Minister at a difficult time. In the following tweet, Singh described Shastri as an epitome of simplicity and honesty.
Singh is in Tashkent to represent India at the Council of Heads of Government meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and hold a bilateral with his Uzbekistan counterpart General Kurbanov Bakhodir Nizamovich.
Subsequent to the visit to Shastri memorial, the Defence Minister interacted with school students in Tashkent.
During his stay, Singh will also represent India in the meeting of Council of Heads of Government (CHG) of SCO in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. This will be the third CHG meeting after India became a member of the SCO. The last two CHG meetings were held on November 30 to December 1, 2017, in Sochi, Russia, and on October 11 to 12, 2018 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
India is actively engaged in various SCO cooperation mechanisms in the region to further develop multilateral cooperation within the SCO framework. The leaders participating in the meeting are expected to focus their discussions on the multilateral economic cooperation/economic development in the SCO region.