Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday met the Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun in Laos's capital, city of Vientiane, during a bilateral meeting, and said both countries must think about cooperation rather than conflict. "We need to focus on cooperation rather than conflict.".
Both the countries are neighbours and will continue to be neighbours and warm relations between India and China, the two biggest nations in the world, will have very positive implications for global peace and prosperity," the Defence Minister said while underlining increased trust and confidence building between the two sides through de-escalation.
The bilateral meeting between the two leaders was held on the sidelines of the 11th ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus) The ministry said this was the first meeting of the two defence ministers following the recent disengagement agreements and the meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit.
The Defence Minister also urged reflection on the lessons learnt from the "unfortunate" border clashes of 2020 and taking measures to prevent the recurrence of such events and safeguard peace and tranquillity along the India-China border.
He stressed and looked for more mutual trust and cooperation developing between both parties through de-escalation. Both sides agreed to work together towards a roadmap for rebuilding mutual trust and understanding.
Rajnath Singh arrived in Vientiane for a three-day visit to attend the 11th ADMM-Plus on November 21 and address the forum on regional and international security issues.
He is also scheduled to hold bilateral talks with participating counterparts from Australia, Japan, Lao PDR, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea and the US. Such meetings are expected to further strengthen bilateral defence cooperation with these nations.
The highest level of consultative and cooperative mechanism on defence in ASEAN is ADMM. ADMM-Plus is the platform for ASEAN member countries, that is, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, and its eight Dialogue Partners, namely, India, US, China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, to further strengthen security and defence cooperation.
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