Rajnath, Doval likely to visit China to attend SCO meeting

This will be their first meeting of Singh and Doval with their Chinese counterparts since the military hostilities between India and Pakistan in May this year following India’s Operation Sindoor launched in retaliation to the Pahalgam terror attack.

The Indian Armed Forces intercepted and neutralised a range of high-tech foreign weapons used by Pakistan, including Chinese-origin PL-15 air-to-air missiles and Turkish Byker YIHA III Kamikaze drones.

Both the Defence Minister and NSA level meetings will also witness participation from Pakistan as well. Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khwaja Asif and the country’s NSA and DG ISIS, Lt Gen Asim Malik are also expected to attend.

China is the host of the SCO leaders’ Summit in Tianjin, and these meetings are preparatory for the leaders’ meeting to be hosted by President Xi Jinping.

This comes in the context of repairing bilateral ties that nosedived after Chinese incursions in 2020 triggered a military standoff along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh.

Doval had travelled to Beijing in December last year when India and China agreed on a set of “six consensus” including resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, trans-border river cooperation and Nathula border trade.

This was announced by the two sides following talks in Beijing between NSA Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi who are also the Special Representatives (SRs).

That was the first meeting of the SRs since frictions emerged in the Western Sector of the India-China border areas in 2020.

The two sides have monitored the implementation of the disengagement agreement of October 2024, resulting in patrolling and grazing in the border areas.

The meeting of the Special Representatives had taken place less than two months after a border patrolling arrangement was announced on October 21 which was followed by a meeting between PM Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia on October 23.

Now, with Rajnath Singh’s first visit and NSA Doval’s second visit to China since the disengagement process was completed, the focus will be on the de-escalation and de-induction of troops from both sides, sources said.

The two sides have taken some steps including the resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, which has just started, and are also in talks about resumption of direct flights. India and China are also looking at easing visa curbs for Chinese nationals and sharing data on transnational rivers, like the Brahmaputra.

Earlier this month, the Indian side had conveyed its support for China’s Shanghai Cooperation Organisation presidency.

The two sides have also agreed to jointly make preparations for the 24th Special Representatives’ Meeting on China-India Boundary Question. Sources said that the Indian side is working towards engaging with the Chinese side, but with “eyes wide open” as the border situation is still not normal. About 50,000 to 60,000 troops from the Indian and Chinese side are still deployed along the LAC.