For the first time after disengagement of troops at Depsang plans and Demchok near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will hold bilateral meeting with his Chinese counterpart Dong Jun on the sidelines of 11th ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus) in Vietnam.
Singh will pay an official visit to Vientiane, Lao PDR from November 20 to November 22 to attend the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus. Lao PDR is the chair and host of 11th ADMM-Plus.
On the sidelines of 11th ADMM-Plus, the Defence Minister is expected to hold bilateral meetings with participating counterparts from US, China, Australia, Japan, Lao PDR, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines and Republic of Korea, the Ministry of Defence said on Monday ahead of his visit.
These meetings are aimed at further enhancing bilateral defence cooperation with these countries.
During his bilateral meetings with Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun, Rajnath is expected to take up talks on de-escalation of troops from both the sides after resuming of patrolling from first of this month and completion of process of disengagement last month at Depsang plains and Demchok to mutually agreed pre-April 2020 positions which was when the Galwan face-off took place.
Other unresolved border issues from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh may also come up for discussions as both the sides appear positive to evaluate the situation to bring peace.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday said the next focus on border issue resolution is expected to be on de-escalation as he stated that it’s a “reasonable supposition” to expect some improvement in India-China relations.
ADMM is the highest defence consultative and cooperative mechanism in ASEAN.
ADMM-Plus is a platform for ASEAN member States (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam) and its eight Dialogue Partners -- like US, China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand -- to strengthen security and defence cooperation.
India became the dialogue partner of ASEAN in 1992 and the inaugural ADMM-Plus was convened in Hanoi, Vietnam on October 12, 2010.
Since 2017, ADMM-Plus Ministers have been meeting annually to bolster the cooperation amongst ASEAN and the Plus countries.