Rajnath Singh to hold bilateral talks with China, Russia at SCO meet in Qingdao

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will lead the Indian delegation to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers’ meeting in Qingdao, China, on June 25-26. On the sidelines of the multi-lateral summit, he is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with his counterparts from China and Russia.

The bilateral engagement comes against the backdrop of a series of meetings between top-ranking officials of India and China over the past two weeks.

The Ministry of Defence stated on Tuesday that Rajnath Singh will present India’s vision for global peace and security, call for joint efforts to eliminate terrorism, and stress for greater trade, economic cooperation, and connectivity within SCO countries.

The SCO summit will see Defence Ministers discuss regional and international peace and security, counter-terrorism efforts. While Pakistan, also an SCO member, is expected to attend the Qingdao meeting, there has been no indication so far of any bilateral engagement between India and Pakistan on the sidelines of the event.

Singh’s scheduled meeting with Chinese Defence Minister Admiral Dong Jun will be their second since November last year, following their last encounter at the 11th ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus in Laos. This will mark the third high-level engagement between India and China in two weeks.

On Monday, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing to discuss promoting bilateral ties. Doval is attending the 20th Meeting of the SCO Security Council Secretaries.

Doval and Wang Yi also serve as Special Representatives (SRs) on the unresolved boundary issue. A statement from the Ministry of External Affairs said, “NSA noted that he looked forward to meeting with Wang Yi in India at a mutually convenient date for the 24th round of SR talks.”

The SR’s were tasked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in October last year to work out a formula to resolve the boundary question. The two nuclear armed neighbours do not have demarcated and defined boundary and that has led to tense standoff in the past.

Additionally, India and China have agreed to resume sharing hydrological data of trans-boundary rivers and to hold ‘functional dialogues’ on economic and trade issues to resolve specific concerns. These steps followed a meeting between India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and China’s Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong on June 13.