New Delhi, India

Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu and Chinese defence minister Li Shangfu will be in Delhi next week for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization or SCO Defence ministers' meetings.

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The in-person defence ministers meeting will take place in Delhi from 27th to 28th April 2023, hosted by Indian defence minister Rajnath Singh. While many bilateral is expected on 27th April, the schedule of which is yet to be announced, the main day of engagement will be 28th April.

India got the chairmanship of the grouping last year at the Samarkand summit in Uzbekistan, and in the run up to the summit in July is hosting key ministerial meetings.

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Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu will visit India for the first time since the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict last year.

Despite the conflict, 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 Inter-governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC).

The defence cooperation between the two countries has also advanced from a simple buyer-seller relationship to a more comprehensive collaboration, including joint research, development, production, and marketing of advanced defence technologies and systems.

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The upcoming visit by the Chinese defence minister Shangfu to Delhi marks the first such visit since the 2020 Galwan incident, which saw aggressive action by China at the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh, resulting in the death of 20 Indian soldiers.

Since then, ties have seen a steep fall, including continued Chinese provocation, including a staking claim to the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Last year, the then-Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi visited India, followed by the visit of the new Chinese FM Qin Gang this year for the G20 foreign ministers meet.

Minister Shangfu took charge in March this year. Both Russian and Chinese defence ministers are on the US sanctions list but that will not impact travel to India in any way.

One central Asian country and Pakistan will attend the SCO defence ministers' meeting virtually, with Pakistani defence minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif participating remotely. However, foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto will attend the SCO Foreign Ministers' meeting in Goa in person from 4-5 May 2023.

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This marks the first ministerial visit from Pakistan to India since the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir's special status in 2019, which led to a freeze in ties, including the suspension of bus and train services by Islamabad. The last visit by a Pakistani FM to India was in 2011 by Hina Rabbani Khar, although Pakistan's Prime Minister's Advisor on Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz, visited Amritsar, India, in 2016 to attend the Heart of Asia meet on Afghanistan.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a regional intergovernmental group of eight member states, covering more than 60% of the Eurasian landmass, 40% of the world population, and 30% of the global GDP. India has a long-standing association with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) prior to becoming a full member. In 2005, India was granted observer status and later became a full member of the grouping in 2017.

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