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New Delhi [India]On April 23, Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu will attend a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) defense ministers meeting planned for next week.
The Pakistani side has not yet confirmed its participation in the meeting, they said.
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The Shanghai Cooperation Organization defense ministers meeting is scheduled for April 27-28.
This is the first visit to India by a Chinese defense minister since the Galwan Valley conflict in 2020.
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Li Shangfu, a general sanctioned by the United States, was named China’s new defense minister a month ago. Li has been under U.S. sanctions since 2018, and his appointment comes amid growing tensions between Beijing and Washington, according to CNN.
China’s rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress, voted unanimously to replace outgoing defense minister Wei Fenghe with space expert Li Shangfu.
China and India have a long history of border crossings, with the latest being witnessed in December 2022 in Arunachal Pradesh. In response, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh notified both Houses of Parliament on 13 December 2022 that Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops attempted to cross the Line of Actual Control in the Tawang section of the Yangtze River in Arunachal The side changed status but due to the timely intervention of Indian military commanders, they returned to their positions.
Rajnath Singh said the scuffle resulted in some injuries on both sides and there were no casualties or serious casualties on our side.
Prior to this, there was a clash in Galwan in June 2020, when the Chinese army attempted to actively change the status quo on the LAC in eastern Ladakh. The clashes took place along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh after a standoff between the two sides over the actions of Chinese troops. Twenty Indian soldiers were killed in Galwan Valley clashes in near-dark nights of 15 and 16 June 2020 in sub-zero temperatures in hand-to-hand combat.
The conflict is the deadliest confrontation between India and China in more than four decades. The skirmish and its aftermath were almost completely ignored in Chinese state media.
However, following the Galwan conflict in 2020, there have been several rounds of military and diplomatic negotiations to resolve the impasse. Disengagement did occur at some border points, but in general, complete disengagement led to a stalemate.
Delhi and Beijing reached an agreement in February 2021 to disengage from the 135-kilometer-long Pangong Lake, creating a buffer zone until all outstanding border issues are resolved, Russia-based media outlet Sputnik earlier reported. Since 2020, more than 50,000 Indian soldiers have been stationed at forward posts along the LAC, equipped with advanced weapons, to prevent any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo of the LAC.
Following the SCO defense ministers meeting, a meeting of foreign ministers is scheduled for May 5 in Goa. Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is all set to attend the same event.
The SCO members are India, Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan. (Arnie)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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