Chinese Defense Minister To Visit India For The First Time Since 2020 Galwan Clash

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization's Defense Ministers' meetings are set to take place in Delhi from 27th to 28th April 2023, and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu are expected to attend. The two ministers will be joined by Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, who will be hosting the event.

India is hosting key ministerial meetings in the run-up to the SCO summit in July, including the upcoming Defense Ministers' meeting.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu is set to visit India for the first time since the Russia-Ukraine conflict started last year. Despite the ongoing geopolitical tensions, India-Russia ties have remained active with high-level engagements, such as the recent visit of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov for the 24th India-Russia talks.

The upcoming visit of the Chinese defence minister Shangfu to Delhi is noteworthy as it will be the first visit to India by a Chinese defence minister since the 2020 Galwan incident. The incident involved aggressive action by China at the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh, resulting in the loss of 20 Indian soldiers and several soldiers of the People's Liberation Army.

While the then Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had visited India in 2022 and held talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, no high-level Indian official has visited Beijing in recent years.

China's newly appointed Foreign Minister Qin Gang had visited India earlier this year for the G-20 foreign ministers' meeting.

Since then, China has renamed multiple places in the Indian state of Arunachal Prdesh in an effort to assert its claims to the region which it claims as part of 'south Tibet'. Troops from the two sides had clashed in the Tawang region of Armuachal in December last year.

Pakistan's defence minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif will attend the upcoming SCO defence ministers' meeting virtually. Meanwhile, foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto is scheduled to attend the SCO Foreign Ministers' meeting in Goa from 4-5 May 2023 in person.