Rajnath Singh may attend key Shanghai group meet in China next week

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is likely to travel to China next week to attend a conclave of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), people familiar with the matter said on Friday.

It will be the first visit to China by a senior Indian minister after ties came under severe strain following the military standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh that began in May 2020.

New Delhi and Beijing are in the process of finalising Singh's visit to China, the people said.

The SCO defence ministers' conclave is scheduled to be held in Qingdao from June 25 to 27.

It is learnt that Singh may hold a bilateral meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Admiral Dong Jun, on the sidelines of the SCO conclave.

China is hosting the meeting in its capacity as the current chair of the SCO.

The military standoff in eastern Ladakh began in May 2020, and a deadly clash at the Galwan Valley in June that year resulted in a severe strain in ties between the two neighbours.

The face-off effectively ended following the completion of the disengagement process from the last two friction points, Demchok and Depsang, under an agreement struck on October 21, 2024.

In December, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval visited Beijing and held talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi under the framework of Special Representatives (SR) dialogue on the boundary dispute.

The decision to revive the SR mechanism and other such dialogue formats was taken at a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Kazan on October 23.

The PM Modi-Xi meeting came two days after India and China firmed up a disengagement pact for Depsang and Demchok.