Indian, Chinese defence ministers to meet today

Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun will meet later today in Laos on the sidelines of the ASEAN Defence Minister's Plus meeting (ADMM +). This will be the second India-China ministerial meeting in the last two days and comes as ties turn around after the Kazan meeting between PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping. 

At the ADMM Plus meeting, the Indian Defence Minister is also expected to meet his counterparts from other countries, including Malaysia and Laos. ADMM Plus is an annual meeting that includes ASEAN defence ministers and the defence ministers of eight countries: Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia, and the United States.

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The last meeting between Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Chinese counterpart was in April 2023 in India. At that time, the then-Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu had travelled to Delhi for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation or SCO Defence Minister meeting. The meeting was significant, especially in the visual domain, since no handshake happened between the two ministers. While the border issue dominated the meeting, the fact that Minister Rajnath chose to do a namaste, instead of a handshake with his Chinese counterpart, showed that the ties remained frosty that time. 

Before the 2023 meeting, Minister Rajnath Singh and the then Chinese Defence Minister General Wei Fenghe met on the sidelines of the SCO meet in Russia's Moscow in 2020, just months after the Galwan incident. The deadly clashes in Galwan, Eastern Ladakh in June of that year left 20 Indian and 4 Chinese soldiers dead. 

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Back-to-back ministerial meetings are seen as a positive element in ties, just a month after the Kazan meeting in October at the leaders' level. The October meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS summit was the first bilateral meeting between Indian and Chinese leaders since the Galwan incident, which led to the downfall of the ties between the two Asian giants. Following the clashes, India had banned a number of Chinese apps and increased scrutiny on Chinese investments. 

Indian External affairs minister Dr S Jaishankar, and Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi met on Monday in Brazil on the sidelines of the G20 summit. During the meeting, it was decided that both countries will take the next steps in ties, which include the resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra pilgrimage, data sharing on trans-border rivers, direct flights between India and China and media exchanges.