Beijing: Chinese defence minister Li Shangfu will visit India this week to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) defence ministers’ meeting to be held in New Delhi on April 27 and 28, the Chinese defence ministry announced on Tuesday.
It will be the first visit by a Chinese defence minister to India since Indian and Chinese militaries have been locked in a three-year standoff in eastern Ladakh.
“Upon invitation, Chinese State Councillor and Defence Minister General Li Shangfu will attend the meeting of the Council of Defence Ministers of the Member States of the SCO in New Delhi, India, from April 27 to 28,” the Chinese defence ministry said in a brief statement.
“During the meeting, General Li will address the conference and meet with the heads of delegations from relevant countries to communicate and exchange views on the issues of international and regional situations as well as defence and security cooperation,” the statement added.
Li as well as Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu are expected to hold bilateral meetings with their Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh on the sidelines of the meeting.
India and China have been locked in a standoff in the Ladakh sector for nearly three years, since early May 2020, sending bilateral ties plummeting to their worst in decades.
Both sides have deployed thousands of troops and heavy armament along the LAC.
A deadly clash at Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh in June 2020 left 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops dead – the first fatalities along the LAC since 1975.
Li who was sanctioned in 2018 by Washington for violating US sanctions against Russia, was named as China’s defence minister in March.
Li, a veteran of China’s ongoing drive to modernise the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), came under US’ scrutiny five years ago for allegedly purchasing Su-35 combat aircraft and S-400 missile system equipment from Russian arms seller Rosoboronexport.
Li’s visit and a possible bilateral with Singh will be a rare opportunity for the top leadership of the two countries to seek a resolution to the conflict along the LAC.
Former Chinese defence minister Wei Fenghe had met Singh on the sidelines of the SCO defence ministers’ meeting in Moscow in September 2020. The two had also attended the “9th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus” in Siem Reap, Cambodia, in November, 2022.
Neither meeting helped resolve the stalemate.
Li’s visit to New Delhi comes within days of the 18th round of military talks between the two countries held on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) on Sunday.
Several rounds of military and diplomatic talks between India and China have failed to resolve the ongoing standoff.
“Under the guidance of the leaders of the two countries and based on the achievements of the meeting between the two foreign ministers, both sides agreed to maintain close contact and dialogue through military and diplomatic channels, speed up the settlement of relevant issues on the western section of the China-India boundary, and continue to safeguard the peace and tranquility in the border areas,” the Chinese defence ministry said in a statement on the meeting released on Tuesday.
In March, Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang told external affairs minister S Jaishankar that both sides should work towards “regular management” of the border when they met on the sidelines of a G20 meeting.
Calling Sino-India ties “abnormal”, Jaishankar told Qin that there are “…real problems in that relationship that need to be looked at, that need to be discussed very openly and candidly between us”.
