All eyes on Rajnath Singh-Li Shangfu meet, as China seeks normalcy in ties
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, April 24: Facing the American heat, China appears making a case of normalization of ties with India after the 18th round of talks between the military commanders of the two nations. China on Monday sought to project that all is well in the bilateral relations with India.
Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu, who recently called on Russian President Vladimir Putin, is expected to meet Union Minister for Defence Rajnath Singh on Thursday on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting. India is currently holding the presidency of the SCO and G20.
“The militaries of China and India held a deep exchange of views on resolving the relevant questions in accordance with the two heads of states’ important consensus in their 18th round of Corps Commander Level Meeting held on Sunday,” China-affiliated Global Times quoted Mao Ning, a spokesperson at China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
However, Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar has not yet revised his stated position that India-China relations are in an abnormal state on account of tension on the line of actual control (LAC). Also, the Indian strategic thinkers have been vocal in their arguments that China is exhibiting a well-known ‘Salami Slicing’ strategy in usurping the land of the neighbouring countries and then forcing protracted negotiations.
The Chinese media quoted local experts to claim that there has been no escalation of tension alongside the LAC for three years now, which they claimed to be signs of growing normalcy. India and China had a violent clash in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh in 2020, and since then the government in New Delhi pressed the accelerators to fast-forward infrastructure development in the border areas with China with a clear aim to prevent Beijing further executing its ‘Salami Slicing’ strategy with India.
The SCO Summit will take place in India in May this year, and the strategic thinkers are eyeing a Xi Jinping, Chinese President, visit to New Delhi to sense if the bilateral ties truly is normalizing. “If Xi comes to New Delhi in May for SCO Summit followed by G20 Summit in July, it would certainly mean that China is seeking to improve the bilateral ties,” said Shyam Sharan, India’s former foreign secretary at the Indian International Centre during an interaction with China observers recently.
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