NSA Ajit Doval Set To Visit China For SCO Meet, Cross-Border Terrorism To Be Key Agenda
NSA Ajit Doval's participation in the summit is a high-stakes balancing act, aiming to expose Pakistan's duplicity while testing China's neutrality
National Security Adviser Ajit Doval is set to visit China for the SCO summit, a trip that will be anything but routine. India plans to leverage the recent Pahalgam terror attack to isolate Pakistan and gauge China's stance, top government sources told News18.
Doval's participation in the summit is a high-stakes balancing act, aiming to expose Pakistan's duplicity while testing China's neutrality.
According to top government sources, a key agenda for India at the SCO will be counterterrorism with Doval expected to confront Pakistan on cross-border terrorism following the Pahalgam attack. India is pushing for the SCO to identify Pakistan-based groups like Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM).
The sources, however, said the SCO may avoid antagonising Pakistan and China, leading to potentially diluted outcomes. China, aiming to normalise relations with India and resume flights, will likely avoid taking strong positions on terrorism due to its close ties with Pakistan, offering only symbolic gestures without strategic shifts, they said.
The issue of Iran adds complexity, as Iran has supported India on the Pahalgam attack but is also aligned with China and Pakistan. In fact, Pakistan condemned the US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif calling a high-level meeting of the national security committee on Monday (June 23).
India will insist on mentioning the Pahalgam attack in the joint declaration, though China and Pakistan are likely to block this, the sources said. Additionally, India will aim to institutionalise anti-terror measures through the SCO's Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), they said.
They further said India is interested in the Chabahar port and the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) as counters to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and has already rejected Iran's mediation offer on Kashmir. Russia will quietly support India, backing its stance on terrorism given the ongoing defence and energy cooperation between the two countries, they added.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is also likely to travel to China to attend a conclave of the SCO summit. It will be the first visit to China by a senior Indian minister after the ties came under severe strain following the military standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh that began in May 2020.
New Delhi and Beijing are in the process of finalising Singh's visit to China. The SCO defence ministers' conclave is scheduled to be held in Qingdao from June 25 to 27.
It is learnt that Singh may hold a bilateral meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Admiral Dong Jun, on the sidelines of the SCO conclave. China is hosting the meeting in its capacity as the current chair of the SCO.
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