Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, NSA Ajit Doval to be in China this week

India's Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval will be in China this week for key Shanghai Cooperation Organisation or SCO meetings, where the defence and NSAs meet. China is the chair of the grouping and will be holding a number of SCO-related meetings, including the foreign minister meetings and the summit, likely on September 1 inTianjin.

The Indian side will meet not only the Chinese counterpart, being the host, but also counterparts from Russia and Central Asia. The visits come as India, China normal ties after the meeting between PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in October on the sidelines of the Kazan BRICS summit. Since then, the Indian defence minister and the Chinese defence minister have met once & Indian NSA has travelled to China for the Special Representative Level (SR) talks. Later this year, the Chinese FM Wang Yi is expected to travel to India for the SR level talks, on border issues.

No meetings are scheduled with Pakistani counterparts, giving the continuousattempts by the country to support cross-border terror in India.Both Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asifand newly appointed Pakistan's NSA, also the ISI Chief, Lt Gen Asim Malik are likely to be present at the SCO meetings given close ties with China.

The visit by NSA Doval and Defence Minister Singh coincides with the visit of the 1st batch of Indian pilgrims to Kailash Mansarovar. The pilgrimage was suspended after the COVID crisis and the 2020 India-China clashes in Eastern Ladakh. India's Ministry of external affairs is the nodal ministry to coordinate the visit, and though an online format accepts the applications. This year, of the 5,500 applications, 750 were accepted.