Nirmala Sitharaman to visit China from April 23-25

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will visit China from April 23 to 25 to participate in a preparatory meeting related to upcoming summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

Officials said Sitharaman is likely to have bilateral meetings with a number of Chinese leaders.

Sitharaman is travelling to China from April 23 to 25 to attend a meeting of SCO defence ministers' meeting, they said.

The annual summit of THE eight-member SCO, in which India is the latest entrant along with Pakistan, will take place in the Chinese city of Qingdao in June.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to attend it.

Last week, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval had held talks with the top official of China's ruling Communist Party Yang Jiechi in Shanghai during which both sides agreed to maintain the pace of high-level exchanges after last year's Dokalam standoff.

Doval's visit was "part of regular high-level engagements between India and China", an Indian Embassy press release had said.

Doval and Yang are Special Representatives for India-China boundary talks.