Shanghai: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday held talks with his Russian counterpart, Andrey Belousov, focusing on the evolving regional security scenario and bilateral defence and strategic ties.
The meeting took place on the sidelines of a defence ministerial conclave of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). In a social media post, Singh described the talks as “insightful”.
“Happy to have met the Defence Minister of Russia, Andrey Belousov, on the sidelines of the SCO Defence Ministers’ Meeting in Qingdao. We had insightful deliberations on boosting India-Russia defence ties,” he mentioned. During their discussions, the two leaders also held talks on the supply of S-400 systems, which played a crucial role during India’s ‘Operation Sindoor’, Su-30 MKI upgrades, and the procurement of critical military hardware in expeditious timeframes.
The Russian Defence Minister highlighted the long-standing Indo-Russian relations, which have stood the test of time, and expressed solidarity with India on the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir.
Later, in an official statement, the Ministry of Defence noted that the meeting between Rajnath Singh and Belousov was “one of the most important recent meetings being held in the backdrop of ‘Operation Sindoor’.”
