No reference to China, Pak in Defence Ministry report

With the Narendra Modi government trying to improve diplomatic ties with China and Pakistan, the Ministry of Defence has dropped references to China and Pakistan in its annual report released on Tuesday.

The report that provides the only government analysis of the regional security scenario names several nations from Syria, Iraq and North Korea to the US, Russia and Bangladesh, but for the first time there is no mention of China and Pakistan, with whom India had fought wars in the past.

The report comes days ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's likely meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in Washington and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's tour to China.

The foreign ministers of India and Pakistan met in Nepal last week to explore the ways of taking the bilateral dialogue forward, whereas Parrikar is likely to discuss the ways of lowering frictions along the Sino-Indian border.