Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu are scheduled to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Defense Ministers’ meetings in Delhi next week. The meetings will take place in person from April 27th to 28th, with Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh serving as host.
Bilateral meetings are expected on April 27th, with the main day of engagement on April 28th.
India became the chairman of the grouping at the Samarkand summit in Uzbekistan last year, and it is now hosting key ministerial meetings leading up to the summit in July. Despite the Russia-Ukraine conflict, India-Russia ties have remained active with high-level engagements, such as the recent visit of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov for the 24th India-Russia Inter-governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC).
The upcoming visit by the Chinese defense minister marks the first such visit since the 2020 Galwan incident, which saw aggressive action by China at the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh, resulting in the death of 20 Indian soldiers.
Since then, ties between India and China have suffered, including continued Chinese provocation and claims on the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Minister Shangfu took charge in March this year. Both Russian and Chinese defense ministers are on the US sanctions list, but this will not impact their travel to India.
The SCO Defense Ministers’ meeting will be attended virtually by one Central Asian country and Pakistan, with Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif participating remotely. However, Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto will attend the SCO Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Goa in person from May 4th to 5th, 2023.
This marks the first ministerial visit from Pakistan to India since the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status in 2019, which led to a freeze in ties, including the suspension of bus and train services by Islamabad.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is a regional intergovernmental group of eight member states covering more than 60% of the Eurasian landmass, 40% of the world population, and 30% of the global GDP. India has had a long-standing association with the SCO, first as an observer in 2005 and later as a full member in 2017.
The defense cooperation between India and Russia has advanced from a simple buyer-seller relationship to a more comprehensive collaboration, including joint research, development, production, and marketing of advanced defense technologies and systems.
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