New Delhi: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will meet with his Chinese counterpart Admiral Dong Jun Wednesday, the first day of his visit to Vientiane in Laos. They will review ongoing efforts to ease military tensions between the two countries.
The meeting between Singh and Dong will come just two days after External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar met with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the margins of the G20 summit in Brazil.
The meeting between the two foreign ministers is the first since the disengagement process began at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) late October. In his remarks, Jaishankar noted the “importance” of India and China’s relations and their role in international politics.
The minister added that he was “glad to note that on the ground, the implementation of that understanding has proceeded as planned”. He also wrote a post on X praising the progress in the process of disengagement at the LAC.
Singh and Dong are expected to discuss the LAC situation more deeply and work towards arriving at a convergence regarding de-escalation.
Both the Indian and Chinese militaries had on 21 October assigned an agreement to disengage from the Depsang Plains and Demchok. They had also agreed to restart patrolling. On 12 November, India and China completed their first set of patrols in the Depsang Plains.
Sources said that India’s focus is to undertake a larger de-escalation along the LAC, which would mean that additional troops brought in on both sides since April 2020 move back to their location.
Role of the Chinese defence minister
In China, the defence minister is a largely ceremonial role and is the public face of military diplomacy with other countries.
Unlike defence ministers of democracies like India and the US, the Chinese defence minister does not have command power, which is with the Central Military Commission (CMC).
Dong was neither added to the CMC nor appointed a state councillor, making him a defence minister with no power to make decisions.
Traditionally, China’s defence minister has been a member of the party and state CMCs, giving him a direct line to the party chief and CMC chairman—both posts currently held by President Xi Jinping.
The defence minister typically has also been a state councillor, granting him status equal to the other national-level ministers and giving him direct access to the Chinese premier, the second-ranking party leader and head of the government.
Admiral Dong had taken over this position in late 2023 after his predecessor General Li Shangfu, who was missing in public since August that year, was sacked over corruption charges in what happened to be the second leadership shake-up in three months.
Li had taken over after his predecessor General Wei Fenghe was sacked, too.
(Edited by Radifah Kabir)
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