India’s defence minister Rajnath Singh will visit Russia next week for the SCO or Shanghai Cooperation Organization defence minister’s meet. Russia is the chair of BRICS and SCO grouping for this year and will be holding all meetings that traditionally happens annually.
Singh is expected to attend SCO defence ministers meet September 4-5 in the Russian capital, which will also see participation of his Chinese counterpart. Singh and his Russian host are expected to hold a bilateral meet with two sides expediting joint defence production projects and critical defence supplies.
Russia has also invited external affairs minister S Jaishankar to attend the SCO foreign ministers’ meeting on September 10.
When asked whether Jaishankar will travel to Moscow for the meeting, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava on Thursday said the minister has received the invitation and a decision on his participation would be made known once it is taken.
This is the second visit of Singh to Russia. He had visited Moscow earlier this year for the Victory Day Parade. An Indian Tri-Service contingent also took part in the parade at Moscow’s Red Square.
This would be the first time that the foreign ministers of India and China would meet in person since the Galwan incident. Even though Rajnath Singh was in Moscow for the Victory Day parade celebrations on June 24, he did not hold any meeting over the ongoing border stand-off between India and China in Ladakh with the Chinese delegation during his visit.
A tweet by the Indian embassy in Russia said, “Russian Defence Minister said that he looked forward to meeting Raksha Mantri Shri @rajnathsingh in Moscow next week. This was conveyed to Ambassador today.”
