 "Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh with the three Indian defence chiefs, Army General Upendra Dwivedi, Naval Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi, and Air Force Air Chief Marshal A P Singh and Indian Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan, in New Delhi. PTI")
Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval are expected to visit China later this month to attend Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meetings, The Indian Express reported citing sources.
Doval is likely to be in China from June 24 to 26, while Singh may travel to Qingdao from June 25 to 27. These will be their first meetings with Chinese counterparts since the military flare-up between India and Pakistan in May, which followed India’s Operation Sindoor in response to the Pahalgam terror attack.
During the operation, Indian forces intercepted and destroyed advanced foreign-made weapons used by Pakistan, including Chinese PL-15 missiles and Turkish kamikaze drones.
Both Indian leaders will also come face-to-face with Pakistani representatives. Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khwaja Asif and NSA Lt Gen Asim Malik are expected to attend.
The meetings come ahead of the SCO leaders’ summit in Tianjin, hosted by China, and are part of efforts to stabilise India-China ties, which soured after the 2020 border standoff in eastern Ladakh.
Doval had visited Beijing in December last year, when India and China agreed on a “six-point consensus” that included restarting the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, cooperation on trans-border rivers, and trade through the Nathula pass.
That was the first meeting between the Special Representatives (Doval and China’s Wang Yi) since the 2020 tensions. Both sides have since monitored the disengagement agreement signed in October 2024, with progress in restoring patrolling and grazing rights along the border.
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View AllTheir December talks were followed by a brief meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Russia.
Now, with Singh’s first visit since the 2020 standoff and Doval’s second since December, the focus is expected to shift to troop de-escalation and further confidence-building.
Talks are also ongoing to restart direct flights between the two countries, ease visa restrictions for Chinese nationals, and improve data sharing on rivers like the Brahmaputra. The Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, which was paused amid tensions, has also recently resumed.