Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman to visit China

Nearly eight months after the Doklam crisis, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be travelling to China to further the bilateral relations between the two neighbouring countries that fought a battle more than 50 years ago.

"Yes, (the China visit) it is probably sometime in late April," Sitharaman told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar here. She, however, did not elaborate on the



meeting's agenda.

Her predecessor Manohar Parrikar was the last Indian defence minister to travel to the communist country in March 2016.

But the Doklam crisis came in between the two ministerial visits as the border guarding troops from two sides had a 72-day face-off at Doklam a disputed site near India-China-Bhutan tri-junction between June and August, last year.