New Delhi: Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif is likely to skip the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) defense ministers’ meeting to be hosted by India in the national capital this week, ThePrint has learnt.
However, in attendance will be Chinese Defense Minister General Li Shangfu and his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu. Both the ministers will attend the meeting with other SCO member states on April 27 and 28.
The member countries of SCO are India, Russia, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan.
Sources in the defense and security establishment told ThePrint that the Pakistani defense minister is unlikely to attend the meeting in person, though their foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will attend the foreign ministers’ meeting in Goa in early May.
Sources said the Pakistani Defense Minister may attend through video conferencing even though he has been sent a formal invitation like the rest of the SCO ministers.
India got the presidency of the SCO at the Samarkand summit in Uzbekistan last year, and is hosting key ministerial meetings in the run-up to the summit in July.
Read also: India, China risk armed conflict due to continued military posturing: US intelligence assessment
Talks with Chinese and Russian Defense Ministers
Gen Li’s visit is the first by a Chinese defense minister since he assumed office in March following tensions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between the two countries in eastern Ladakh.
Last month the Chinese Foreign Minister did Visited India and also interacted with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar for the G20 meeting.
The Chinese defense minister is a key figure in the Chinese military and has overseen several major projects and is ahead of its Strategic Support Force (SSF) becoming part of the country’s Central Military Commission – a body headed by President Xi Jinping and the People’s Oversees the Liberation Army, People’s Armed Police and militia of China.
The SSF was created in 2015 as part of a plan to restructure military management to focus on space, cyber, political and electronic warfare.
Sources told ThePrint that Defense Minister Rajnath Singh will also hold a bilateral meeting with Gen Lee during which the vexed issue of tension along the LAC will be discussed.
While the two armies have disengaged from the northern and southern flanks of the Pangong Tso, Gogra and Hot Springs area since the standoff began in May 2020, tensions remain in the Depsang Plains and Demchok.
Both sides have failed to make any progress regarding Depsang and Demchok, where tensions predate the ongoing standoff. Further, though troops have withdrawn at several locations along the LAC, they continue to be deployed in forward areas with their armored and artillery equipment.
India has sought de-escalation, which would entail the withdrawal of all excess troops and equipment in the areas prior to April 2020.
Singh will also hold bilateral talks with Russian Defense Minister Shoigu. This will be his first visit to India since the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out last year.
However, India and Russia have continued high profile visits and interactions recently visit Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov for the 24th India-Russia Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC).
Defense cooperation between the two countries has also progressed from a simple buyer-seller relationship to a more comprehensive collaboration involving joint research, development, production and marketing of advanced defense technologies and systems.
Russia remains a major defense partner for India, with the latter operating a lot of older Russian equipment, while also going on to purchase new ones such as the S-400 Triumf air defense systems.
(Editing by Anumeha Saxena)