PM Modi meets Lao President Thongloun at SCO Summit in Bishkek
Synopsis
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith on the sidelines of the SCO Summit in Bishkek on September 1, 2026, discussing ways to boost bilateral ties between India and Laos under the broader Act East Policy framework.
Key Takeaways
PM Modi held a bilateral meeting with Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith on the margins of the SCO Summit in Bishkek on September 1, 2026 .
India and Laos have maintained diplomatic relations since 1954 , one of India's oldest partnerships in Southeast Asia.
The Mekong-Ganga Cooperation initiative , launched in 2000 , remains the primary multilateral framework linking India and Laos on connectivity and cultural diplomacy.
India has been a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) since 2017 , regularly using summit margins for bilateral outreach beyond the core membership.
The meeting aligns with India's Act East Policy , which prioritises economic, connectivity and cultural engagement with ASEAN nations including Laos.
Possible follow-up ministerial visits or announcements on trade, tourism or connectivity projects may follow the leader-level conversation.
On the sidelines of the SCO Summit in Bishkek, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a bilateral meeting with Thongloun Sisoulith, President of the Lao People's Democratic Republic, on Tuesday, September 1, 2026 — using the multilateral stage to advance a quietly significant relationship in India's eastern neighbourhood.
Modi described the meeting as 'a great conversation on boosting bilateral linkages between our nations' — a phrase that signals intent without locking in specifics, the classic language of diplomatic groundwork being laid.
Laos in India's Act East playbook
India and Laos have maintained formal diplomatic relations since 1954 — a partnership older than most of their regional frameworks. The relationship deepened structurally in 2000 with the launch of the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC) initiative, which groups Laos alongside Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam as priority partners for India's connectivity, trade and cultural diplomacy. The MGC remains the primary institutional channel through which New Delhi engages Vientiane on river-basin development, tourism corridors and people-to-people ties rooted in shared Buddhist heritage. The meeting fits a well-worn but deliberate pattern: India uses the margins of SCO and other multilateral summits to hold bilateral conversations with Asian partners who are not core SCO members, threading its Act East Policy objectives through every available diplomatic window.The SCO margin as a diplomatic multiplier
Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, has hosted SCO summits before — most notably in 2019 — and the format reliably delivers a dense schedule of pull-aside meetings. For India, whose SCO membership dates to 2017, the summit margins have become as strategically valuable as the plenary sessions themselves. A meeting with the Lao president — a Southeast Asian leader outside the SCO's core membership — illustrates exactly how New Delhi uses these gatherings: as a diplomatic multiplier, stacking bilateral agendas onto multilateral travel. Thongloun Sisoulith has been President of Laos since 2021, having previously served as Prime Minister. His long tenure across both executive roles makes him one of the most experienced figures in Lao governance, and a stable interlocutor for the kind of long-horizon connectivity and trade discussions India is keen to advance. Watch for follow-up ministerial visits or announcements on trade facilitation, tourism linkages or infrastructure connectivity — the next moves that typically follow a leader-level conversation framed around 'boosting bilateral linkages.'Point of View
And any deepening of connectivity or trade ties there has downstream implications for India's broader access to the Mekong sub-region. The choice to flag this meeting publicly — rather than let it pass as routine diplomatic traffic — suggests New Delhi wants the signal noticed in both Vientiane and the wider ASEAN capitals watching India's eastern engagement. Whether this translates into concrete deliverables will depend on the ministerial follow-through that typically separates genuine diplomatic momentum from summit-margin optics.
NationPress
1 Sept 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did PM Modi meet the Lao President at the SCO Summit?
PM Modi met Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith on the sidelines of the SCO Summit in Bishkek to discuss strengthening bilateral ties between India and Laos. India routinely uses multilateral summits to hold bilateral meetings with Asian partners as part of its Act East Policy.
What is India's relationship with Laos?
India and Laos have maintained formal diplomatic relations since 1954. The relationship is anchored institutionally by the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation initiative, launched in 2000, which focuses on connectivity, tourism and cultural ties rooted in shared Buddhist heritage.
What is the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation initiative?
The Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC) is a framework launched in 2000 grouping India with five mainland Southeast Asian nations — Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam — to advance cooperation on tourism, culture, education and connectivity.
When did India join the SCO?
India became a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in 2017. The grouping is a Eurasian security and economic organisation, and India regularly uses its summits for bilateral diplomatic engagement beyond the core member states.
Who is Thongloun Sisoulith?
Thongloun Sisoulith has been President of the Lao People's Democratic Republic since 2021. He previously served as Prime Minister and holds one of the most experienced diplomatic profiles in Lao governance.
