Rajnath Singh leaves for Russia to attend key meet

TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ Defence Minister Rajnath Singh today left for Russia on a three-day visit to attend a crucial meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and hold talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoigu on further boosting bilateral defence cooperation.

The Defence Ministers of all eight SCO member nations are expected to deliberate on regional security challenges like terrorism and extremism and ways to deal with them “collectively” in Moscow on Friday, officials said.

The meeting is taking place under the shadow of a fierce standoff between India and China, both members of the influential bloc. Chinese Defence Minister Gen Wei Fenghe and Pakistan’s Pervez Khattak are expected to attend the SCO meeting.

Asked about the possibility of a bilateral meeting between Rajnath Singh and Gen Wei on the sidelines of the SCO event, officials said there is no such plan.