Amid high tensions between India and China along the disputed boundary in Ladakh, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is scheduled to meet his Chinese counterpart, Wei Fenghe, on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) defence ministers’ meeting in Moscow.
The Chinese side sought a meeting between Mr. Singh and their Minister, a defence source said, while another official source confirmed that the meeting is scheduled to take place. The meeting is likely to happen after the SCO defence ministers’ meeting that began around 11:30 a.m. local time.
On Thursday, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said he would meet his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, at the SCO foreign minters’ meet in Moscow on September 10.
Mr. Singh is on a three-day visit to Russia for the joint meeting of the defence ministers of the SCO, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of victory in the World War II, the Defence Ministry said.
Mr. Singh was in Russia in June for the Victory Day parade, but there was no bilateral meeting with Mr. Wei that time.
The stand-off along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh is on for four months now after Chinese troops made an ingress into Indian held territory along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and had undertaken a massive build-up along the LAC in several sectors.
Naval exercise
In the Andaman Sea off the Strait of Malacca, navies of India and Russia began a two-day ‘Indra 2020’ exercise on Friday. Due to restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, it would be undertaken in a ‘non-contact, at sea only’ format, the Navy said.
“The primary aim of Indra Navy-20 is to further consolidate inter-operability built up by the two navies over the years and also to enhance understanding and procedures for multi-faceted maritime operations,” the Navy said in a statement. ‘Indra 2020’, a biennial exercise, began in 2003.
The Indian Navy has deployed guided missile destroyer INS Ranvijay, indigenous frigate INS Sahyadri and fleet tanker INS Shakti along with their integral helicopters for the exercise. Russia is being represented by destroyer Admiral Vinogradov, destroyer Admiral Tributs and fleet tanker Boris Butoma of the Pacific Fleet.