The SCO defence ministerial meeting is scheduled for April 27 and 28
Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu and his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu are likely to attend a crucial meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) that India is hosting next week.
Amid the ongoing border conflict with China, SCO meeting is getting high importance and significance for India. According to officials, the SCO meeting shall be held in Delhi on April 27 and 28.
The meeting of the SCO foreign ministers will be held in India in May. The culmination of these conferences will be the SCO Summit, which will take place in July and be hosted for the first time by India since it joined the organisation in 2017.
BORDER DISPUTE WITH CHINA AND SCO MEETING
The border dispute between India and China in eastern Ladakh is about to enter its fourth year in early May, which coincides with Li’s visit to New Delhi for the SCO military ministers’ conference.
The disagreements at Depsang in the Demchok sector and Charding Nullah Junction (CNJ) in the Daulet Beg Oldi sector have not been addressed after 17 rounds of talks between the Indian and Chinese militaries.
Li is the first Chinese defence minister to visit India since the conflict in June 2020 at Galwan, which strained relations between the two countries. In the seven-hour bloody battle in Galwan Valley at Patrolling Point 14, twenty Indian soldiers were killed.
RUSSIA- INDIA IN SCO MEETING
Following the Russia-Ukraine conflict that broke out last year, Shoigu will be visiting India for the first time.
India and Russia are still having trouble figuring out a reliable way to pay for their weapons contracts in the wake of US-led sanctions against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine in February of last year.
The delivery of the fourth and fifth squadrons of the S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile systems to India has been considerably delayed as a result, among other things.
WILL PAKISTAN BE THERE FOR SCO
It is said that although there has been no official confirmation of Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif’s attendance in person at the SCO defence ministerial conference slated for April 27 and 28, he is expected to participate digitally.
