Rajnath Singh To Visit China This Month Amid Bid To Rebuild Ties - What's On Agenda?

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will travel to China later this month. The visit comes as both India and China are working to rebuild relations after the 2020 border standoff in Eastern Ladakh.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will be in China on June 24-25 and will attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation defence ministers' meet.

China currently holds the chairmanship of the SCO. The influential economic and security bloc's members include Russia, India and Pakistan.

During the visit, Singh may hold talks with his Chinese counterpart, Admiral Dong Jun.

Rajnath Singh's visit to China will be the first high-level Indian ministerial-level visit since 2020. Further, this will be Singh's first visit as the defence minister, though he has previously travelled as the home minister.

The SCO is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation established in 2001 in Shanghai in China by Kazakhstan, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

India's association with the SCO began in 2005 as an observer country. It became a full member state of SCO at the Astana summit in 2017.

Pakistan became its permanent member along with India in 2017.

Iran in July 2023 had become a permanent member of the SCO at an India-hosted virtual summit of the grouping.

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