NEW DELHI: Defence minister Rajnath Singh is now headed for Tashkent in Uzbekistan to attend a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (
SCO
) meeting, in which his counterparts from China and Pakistan will also be present.
Singh is scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting with his Uzbekistan counterpart Lt-General Nizamovich on Tuesday during his two-day trip. However, there was no official word on whether he will also meet Chinese defence minister General Wei Fenghe, amid no signs of de-escalation in the military confrontation between the two countries in eastern
Ladakh
, which is into its third year now.
External affairs minister
S Jaishankar
, incidentally, had met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi a couple of times before the 16th round of corps commander-level talks on July 17.
But the deadlock persists on the troop disengagement at Patrolling Point-15 and the Charding Ninglung Nallah (CNN) track junction at Demchok, let alone the much bigger stand-off at the crucially-located Depsang Bulge area in eastern Ladakh.
At the defence ministers’ conclave of the eight-member SCO (India, Russia, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan) on Wednesday, terrorism and the international security situation in Afghanistan will be on the agenda.
