Rajnath meets China DefMin in 1st top- level talks since row
Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Friday met with Chinese defence minister General Wei Fenghe in Moscow in the first highlevel political contact between the two countries who are engaged in a four- month long tense military stand- off in the Ladakh sector.
The two sides discussed the current military stand- off in Ladakh and ways to bring down tensions between the two nuclear armed countries.
It was the Chinese side which requested for a meeting with defence minister Singh who is in Moscow to attend the joint meeting of the heads of defence ministers of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation ( SCO).
The meeting began at 9: 30 pm ( Indian Standard Time) at Hotel Metropol in Moscow. Defence secretary Ajay Kumar and Indian ambassador to Russia, D. B. Venkatesh Varma, were part of the Indian delegation.
This is the first highest level face- to- face meeting between the two sides after the border row escalated in eastern Ladakh in early May. External affairs minister S. Jaishankar has previously held telephonic talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the border standoff.
Mr Jaishankar, who would also be travelling to Moscow for a foreign ministers’ meeting of the SCO member countries on September 10, may also meet his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
Earlier, Chinese state owned Global Times said that Friday’s meeting would help the two countries enhance communication in defence, control the situation and avoid incidents like the recent one at the South Pangong Tso escalating into a wider clash.