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'Incumbent on both sides to maintain positive momentum': Rajnath Singh after meeting Chinese Defence Minister
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on June 27 that he held talks with Admiral Don Jun, the Defence Minister of China, on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers' Meeting in Qingdao, China.
Singh said he had a constructive, forward-looking exchange of views on issues pertaining to bilateral relations with the Chinese counterpart.
'Expressed my happiness on the restarting of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra after a gap of nearly six years. It is incumbent on both the sides to maintain this positive momentum and avoid adding new complexities in the bilateral relationship,' Singh said in a post on X.
The defence ministers of the SCO member states, including in India, were in this port city of China to attend a two-day conclave on June 25-26.
A Chinese readout of the meeting said India does not seek confrontation with China, and it is for enhancing communication and mutual trust.
Following the eastern Ladakh border standoff, India has consistently maintained that peace and stability along the border are prerequisites for normalising overall ties.
The military standoff in eastern Ladakh began in May 2020, and a deadly clash at the Galwan Valley in June that year resulted in a severe downturn in ties between the two neighbours.
The face-off effectively ended following the completion of the disengagement process from Demchok and Depsang's last two friction points under an agreement finalised on October 21.
In December last, NSA Ajit Doval visited Beijing and held talks with Wang Yi under the framework of Special Representatives (SR) dialogue on the boundary dispute.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Kazan on October 23 to decide to revive the SR mechanism and other such dialogue formats.
The Modi-Xi meeting came two days after India and China firmed up a disengagement pact for Depsang and Demchok.
India refused to endorse the joint declaration at the SCO Defence Ministers' meeting in China, citing the exclusion of concerns around terrorism as a key reason.
On June 26, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday revealed that a reference to terrorism — strongly pushed by India — was omitted from the document due to objections from 'one particular country', which blocked
MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal confirmed that India could not agree to the final declaration, as it failed to address what New Delhi views as a critical regional challenge—terrorism.
'India wanted concerns on terrorism reflected in the document, which was not acceptable to one particular country, and therefore the statement could not be adopted,' Jaiswal said.
During his address at the SCO meeting, Singh strongly reiterated India's zero-tolerance policy towards terrorism, urging all 11 participating countries to take a united stand.
It is incumbent on both the sides to maintain this positive momentum and avoid adding new complexities in the bilateral relationship.
'The perpetrators, organisers, financers, and sponsors of reprehensible acts of terrorism—including cross-border terrorism—must be held accountable and brought to justice,' he stated.
