The Fact India: Chinese Defense Minister General Li Shangfu has come to India to attend the meeting of the Defense Ministers of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). During this, he met India’s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh. In this meeting, Rajnath Singh rejected the proposal regarding military cooperation on the spot. The tension between the two Defense Ministers was so much that even the formality of shaking hands with each other did not happen.
Before the SCO meeting, Rajnath Singh met the visiting Defense Ministers separately. Keeping aside the border dispute in Ladakh, Arunachal Pradesh, India has clearly rejected another attempt by China to normalize relations. In a meeting with Chinese Defense Minister General Li Shangfu, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh bluntly said that China’s efforts to break existing agreements have affected the entire bilateral relationship between the two countries. In the meeting with the Foreign Minister of China in New Delhi in March 2023, Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar had also said that relations cannot be normalized without maintaining peace and tranquility on the border.
General Shangfu is the new Defense Minister of China and he is visiting India for the first time. There is a meeting of the Defense Ministers of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on Friday (today) in New Delhi. Apart from India, China, Pakistan, Russia, Iran, Belarus, defense ministers of four other Central Asian countries will participate in it. This is the first time that such a direct message has been given to China even at the level of Defense Minister. According to sources, at the very beginning of the meeting, a proposal regarding cooperation in the military field was presented by China, which the Indian Defense Minister refused to even consider. The Chinese team was also stunned for some time by this stand of Rajnath.
According to the official release of the central government, Rajnath Singh told the Chinese Defense Minister that no progress can be made in the relationship between India and China without establishing peace and tranquility on the border. Whatever the problem between the two countries, it should be resolved through the existing bilateral agreements. Violation of these agreements has affected the entire bilateral relationship. If the tension on the border decreases, then its positive effect will be seen in other areas as well.
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