Rajnath Singh to visit Ladakh, meet soldiers

New Delhi: Amid the ongoing tension at borders with China, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will be visiting the eastern Ladakh region to interact with soldiers deployed in the hostile border area.

The minister would be flying from Delhi to Leh on July 17 and would also interact with the soldiers injured in the barbaric attack carried out by the Chinese People's Liberation Army on June 15. In the attack, India lost 20 soldiers and the Chinese Army too had casualties, the figures still unknown.

Singh will also visit the forward locations where Indian troops are deployed. He would be accompanied by Indian Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane.

Singh had earlier on July 3 planned to visit Leh, however, he had to drop it as Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to visit the forward location in eastern Ladakh.

Currently, both India and China are engaged in military and diplomatic deliberation to de-escalate the tense situation at the border areas. The countries are locked in a ten-week long standoff at multiple points, hitherto unprecedented along the border.

On Tuesday both countries' military delegates held deliberations about disengagement and de-escalation of troops and materials at the borders in eastern Ladakh for 15 long hours.

The talks started at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday and ended up at 2 a.m. on Wednesday. Indian delegates asked Chinese People's Liberation Army troops to completely withdraw from Pangong Lake and Depsang.

The meeting between 14 Corps commander Lieutenant General Harinder Singh and South Xinjiang Military District chief Major General Liu Lin is happening on the lines of the one they held at the Chushul-Moldo border personnel meeting (BPM) point in eastern Ladakh on June 6.

This is the fourth meeting between the delegates. The third meeting between the two countries' delegates continued for almost 12 hours wherein India has put a strong message to the Chinese People's Liberation Army troops that they have not abided by the disengagement consensus.

Also on June 22, Singh had gone to Russia for three days to carry out strategic business talks and also to attend the Victory Day Parade at Red Square in Moscow to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of Victory of the Soviet People in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

Singh had said that the India-Russia bilateral relationship is a special and privileged strategic partnership, the future of which remains strong. He reviewed India's defence relationship in a meeting with Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov. Russia had assured India that ongoing defence contracts will not be just maintained, but in a number of cases it will be taken forward in a shorter time.