India’s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh will visit China — his first trip in five years — amid ongoing efforts by the world’s two most populous nations to mend ties after the 2020 border clashes.
Singh will attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization defense ministers’ meeting in Qingdao starting Wednesday, where he will focus on regional and global security and counter-terrorism, India’s Defence Ministry said Tuesday.
Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval is also in China for meetings of the SCO, a China-led multilateral group comprising nine permanent members, including India and Pakistan.
The two officials are likely laying the groundwork for a potential visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the SCO leaders’ summit this fall. Modi has been “warmly” invited, according to an April note sent to local media by China’s ambassador to India, but New Delhi has not yet confirmed his attendance.
Singh’s two-day visit this week is the most high-profile trip by an Indian official to China since tensions between the two began to ease late last year.
Diplomatic and economic relations between the two countries plunged after June 2020 when clashes between soldiers along the border left at least 20 Indian and an unknown number of Chinese troops dead. As the relations soured, the two countries moved thousands of troops, missiles and fighter jets along parts of the 3,488 kilometer (2,167 mile) unmarked border.
In October, the two agreed to stabilize relations after Chinese President Xi Jinping and Modi met at the BRICS summit in Russia.
“China-India relations have made some positive progress,” Beijing said in statement on Monday.
India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar is also expected to visit China in the coming weeks for the SCO foreign Ministers’ summit.
At this year’s SCO meet, most members are expected to focus on the impact of military aggressions around the world, while India will prioritize the issue of terrorism. New Delhi last week did not associate itself with an SCO resolution that was critical of Israel.
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