Rajnath Singh meets Chinese counterpart Jun after border disengagement

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Defence Minister Rajnath Singh met with his Chinese counterpart, Admiral Dong Jun, on Wednesday, marking their first meeting since the India-China Ladakh standoff. The two leaders held a bilateral discussion in Vientiane, Lao PDR in Laos, where they talked about charting a roadmap for stronger cooperation between the two nations.

 

The meeting took place on the sidelines of the 10-nation ASEAN summit. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Singh described the meeting as ‘highly productive’, emphasising that the two leaders discussed collaborating on a roadmap to rebuild mutual trust and understanding between India and China. 

 

“Raksha Mantri Shri @rajnathsingh held a bilateral meeting with Chinese Defence Minister Mr Dong Jun in Vientiane, Lao PDR,” Singh’s office said on X, sharing a picture of the two leaders.

 

The meeting came weeks after India and China completed their disengagement exercise in Demchok and Depsang late last month. These locations were the last two friction points between the two countries, which were triggered by the Galwan Valley clash in June 2020.

 

India and China completed their disengagement on October 30, with the status now expected to return to pre-April 2020 levels. On October 25, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Russia, their first meeting since the Ladakh row.

 

At that key meeting, the two leaders reached a common understanding to improve bilateral ties between India and China. The Galwan Valley clash resulted in the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers, marking the most violent conflict between the two Asian giants in four decades.