Defense ministers of India and China may meet in Laos, know what experts have to say

New Delhi: Defense Minister Rajnath Singh will be in Laos next week. Rajnath Singh will attend the ASEAN Defense Ministers Plus Meeting (ADMM) meeting. Sources say that during this time he/she may meet with his/her Chinese counterpart Defense Minister Dong Jun. If this happens, this will be the first meeting at the ministerial level between the two countries after both sides agreed on patrolling arrangement in Eastern Ladakh.

Rajnath will go to the meeting of defense ministers of ASEAN countries

Actually Rajnath Singh is going to participate in the annual meeting between the Defense Ministers of ASEAN countries and the ministers of other eight countries. Recently, bilateral talks took place between Chinese President Xi Jinping and PM Modi during the BRICS Summit in Kazan. After this meeting, which took place after a long gap, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri had said that both the countries had welcomed the steps taken towards the patrolling agreement regarding disengagement. In the meeting of the two leaders, both the leaders had stressed the need to start special representative level talks for a permanent solution to the border dispute.

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Meeting between India and China may happen again

India’s NSA Ajit Doval and China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi had asked to schedule this meeting soon. Apart from this, both the leaders also emphasized that the officials will take forward the strategic dialogue through bilateral dialogue mechanisms, which also includes the Foreign Minister level mechanism. It is believed that the important meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries held in July this year was also a major reason behind what the two countries achieved in Kazan.

After Kazan, now there is talk of a big meeting in Laos

In such a situation, if the defense ministers of both the countries meet in Laos, then it will be the first major meeting after the Kazan meeting. Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and his/her Chinese counterpart last met in April 2023 when Chinese Foreign Minister Li Shangfu came to New Delhi to attend the SCO Summit. Before that, the Defense Minister had met the Chinese Defense Minister on 4 September 2020 on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Summit.

Why is this meeting with China important, expert told

Rajnath Singh, while recently speaking at the Chanakya Defense Dialogue 2024, had said that the patrolling arrangement between the two countries was the result of months of diplomatic talks. Harsh V Pant, an expert on Chinese affairs, says, ‘Though there is a lot of distrust between the two countries in many matters, the biggest damage caused by Galwan was to the defense dialogue between the two countries. In such a situation, if a meeting takes place, it should be seen as a message to establish trust. In fact, experts say that relations are far from normalization at present, but India is trying to move towards it, albeit with careful steps, the same applies to China also.