The government of India declared it will host the SCO summit remotely, despite rumours that Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif might travel to India for the event on July 4. India holds the presidency currently of the Eurasian group and had held an in-person meeting of the SCO foreign ministers earlier this month in Goa that saw participation by all member-states, including Pakistan.
India had earlier invited leaders of all member-countries for the summit - the first under its presidency - that will be chaired by PM Narendra Modi. At a time when relations with China have been ruined by the boundary issue and when relations with Pakistan are at an all-time low, an in-person summit would have allowed Modi to meet both Xi and Sharif.
India’s decision to host a virtual summit also means Xi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin won’t have to make back to back visits to India, as the government prepares to also host the G20 summit in September.
Since the ongoing military impasse in eastern Ladakh that broke out in April-May 2020, Modi and Xi have not met bilaterally since India continues to insist that relations with China aren't normal. In the case of Sharif, India will be relieved it won’t have to host him when Pakistan is also mired in domestic political strife. A Modi-Sharif bilateral would have been unlikely in any case.
Modi, Xi and Putin will probably meet up before the G20 at the Brics conference in Johannesburg in August. At the Brics foreign ministers meeting in Cape Town, S Jaishankar will also interact with his Chinese and Russian counterparts.