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India will host Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers’ meeting on Friday to discuss regional peace and security, counter terrorism efforts within the participating countries, and effective multilateralism.
China’s Defence Minister Li Shangfu will also participate the SCO meeting, marking his first visit since the Galwan stand off in May of 2020.
“Chinese State Councilor and Defence Minister Li Shangfu will attend a defence ministers’ meeting among members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation from Thursday to Friday in India. He will make a speech and meet with head of delegations from other countries: Chinese Defence Ministry,” China’s official mouthpiece Global Times tweeted.
By way of Shangfu’s participation at the SCO meeting, China is signalling that bilateral relations between the two countries are no longer that stiff. It’s not know whether Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will have bilateral engagement with Shangfu on the sidelines of the SCO meeting. The ministry, however, stated that Singh will also hold bilateral meetings with the Defence Ministers of participating countries on the sidelines.
Other than SCO members such as Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, two observer countries - Belarus and Iran - will also be participating in the meeting, said Ministry of Defence in an official statement.
“The ongoing engagement with SCO has helped India promote its relations with the countries in the region with which India has shared civilisational linkages, and is considered India’s extended neighbourhood,” observed the MoD.
The theme of India’s Chairmanship of SCO in 2023 is ‘SECURE-SCO’. According to the MoD, India attaches special importance to SCO in promoting multilateral, political, security, economic and people-to-people interactions in the region.
The Ministry also highlighted that the SCO pursues its policy based on the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations, non-interference in internal affairs, equality of all member states and mutual understanding and respect for opinions of each of them.
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