Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to meet Chinese counterpart on sidelines of ADDM Plus at Lao PDR

New Delhi: Within days of troops resuming patrolling at Depsang and Demchok sectors near the LAC in eastern Ladakh, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is all set to have a discussion with his Chinese counterpart Admiral Dong Juan later this week to “further enhance” bilateral defence cooperation.

The two ministers are likely to sit across a table at Vientiane in Lao PDR where they will attend the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus on Nov 20-22, deliberating on regional and global security issues.

"On the sidelines of 11th ADMM-Plus, Singh is expected to hold bilateral meetings with his counterpart from China," the Defence Ministry said in a statement here on Monday.

The minister will hold similar bilateral talks with participating counterparts from the USA, Australia, Japan, Lao PDR, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines and Republic of Korea.

While the scope for such meetings may be limited, it comes at a time when the armed forces want to see the next phase in the peace-building process on the Line of Actual Control like the “restoration of trust”, “de-escalation” and finally the “de-induction”.

The government, sources said, would also like to start a discussion on patrolling in the buffer zones that were created to ease out the level of tension between the border guarding troops of the Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.

The two armies completed their first round of patrolling at Depsang and Demchok by the first week of November after both sides mutually agreed for a resolution of the four-year long crisis.

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 (India, 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 in 2010. Since 2017, ADMM-Plus ministers have been meeting annually to bolster the cooperation amongst ASEAN and the Plus countries.