In his first such visit since Operation Sindoor, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will travel to China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers’ meet in Qingdao from June 25 to 27. Pakistan Defence Minister Khwaja Asif too will attend the meeting.
The visit comes as India and China take steps to restore ties, including the resumption of trade and travel links as well as dialogue mechanisms.
In addition, the Indian pilgrims bound for Kailash-Mansarovar – the first batch to undertake the trip since the 2020 military stand-off and Galwan killings – are also expected to reach their destination at the same time as Mr. Singh’s visit to Qingdao. The steps are part of the “normalisation” process agreed to by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping during their meeting in Kazan in October 2024, after a tense four-year military stand-off on the Line of Actual Control.
Both leaders are expected to attend the BRICS summit in Brazil from July 6 to 7, while Mr. Modi has been invited to the SCO Heads of State Summit in Tianjin, China, later this year.
Sources said that in Qingdao, which hosts a significant Chinese naval base, Mr. Singh will hold bilateral talks with Chinese Defence Minister Admiral Dong and Russian counterpart Andrey Belousov on the sidelines of the conference. While Mr. Singh had met Admiral Dong during the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus in Laos last November, this will be their first exchange since the four-day India-Pakistan conflict, where Chinese military hardware support to Pakistan was significant.
Mr. Singh is expected to meet other Defence Ministers from the SCO states that also include Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Belarus, while sources said no meeting with the Pakistani Defence Minister is on the cards.
SCO members are expected to discuss defence and security cooperation, along with the SCO’s special Regional Anti-Terror Structure (RATS) mechanism, during the meeting. As the conflict between Israel and Iran escalates, Mr. Singh’s participation at the SCO conference will also be watched closely for India’s position.
Last week, India disassociated itself from a statement issued by the SCO that had “strongly condemned” Israel for its strikes on Iran on June 13, and said Israel’s “aggressive actions” on civilian targets and infrastructure were a “gross violation of international law and the United Nations Charter”. India said it had not been part of the discussion on the statement and issued its own separate statement. The Hindu
