The Indian and Chinese defense ministers will meet in New Delhi on Thursday. This will be the first time the two nuclear-armed neighbors have met on Indian soil since violent fighting along their disputed border in the Himalayas claimed the lives of numerous soldiers.
A. Bharat Bhushan Babu, a spokesman for the Indian defense ministry, told CNN on Thursday that China’s recently appointed defense minister Li Shangfu will meet his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh outside of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) military ministers’ meeting.
Along with peers from Russia and many Central Asian nations, Li, who assumed the position last month, is in New Delhi.
This is the first time a Chinese defense minister has visited India since a deadly clash along their hotly disputed border claimed the lives of at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers in Aksai Chin-Ladakh in 2020.
Tensions between the two countries have been simmering ever since, and escalated in December when a brawl between troops from both sides in the Tawang Sector of India’s northeastern territory of Arunachal Pradesh resulted in minor injuries.
The lengthy disputed border has long been a source of friction between New Delhi and Beijing, with the agitation spilling into war before. In 1962 a month-long conflict ended in a Chinese victory and India losing thousands of square miles of territory.
On Tuesday, China’s Ministry of Defense said Li will “communicate and exchange views on issues of the international and regional situations as well as defense and security cooperation,” at the SCO gathering.
Earlier this month, he met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in his first overseas trip since assuming the role, as China and Russia continue to bolster ties while Western countries ramp up pressure on Beijing to push Putin to end his war against Ukraine.
Li, a general and veteran of China’s military modernization drive, was sanctioned by the United States in 2018 over transactions with Russia’s state-controlled arms exporter Rosoboronexport, when he led the Chinese military’s Equipment Development Department.
India, which is moving closer to the US as it tries to counter the rise of an increasingly assertive China, also relies heavily on Russian arms to equip its military.
Li’s visit comes four days after India and China concluded the 18th round of talks to attempt to resolve the border issue.
India assumed the chair of the SCO summit in 2023. The grouping’s foreign ministers are expected to meet in the western Indian coastal state of Goa on May 4-5.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s visit to the country will be the most senior-level one in seven years.