WATCH: Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman teaches Chinese soldiers to say 'namaste'
Follow UsIndian defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman was seen sharing a laugh with Chinese soldiers, and teaching them how to say "namaste", on her first visit to the Nathu La border post in Sikkim.
The video was posted on her official Twitter account.
Sharing another snippet from Smt @nsitharaman 's interaction with Chinese soldiers at the international border at Nathu-la, Sikkim pic.twitter.com/TIRdnhixeL
— Raksha Mantri (@DefenceMinIndia) October 8, 2017
In the video, she can be heard asking the PLA personnel: “Do you know what ‘mamaste’ means?”
After a Chinese soldier says "Namaste means nice to meet you", Sitharaman goes on to ask “What would you say in Chinese?”
To which a Chinese soldier replies “Ni hao", much to the amusement of everybody present.
Sitharaman visited forward areas along the India-China border in Sikkim Sunday.
Nathu La is some 30 km from Doklam, where the Indian and Chinese armies recently faced-off from each other for 73 days.
Acknowledged a row of Chinese soldiers from across the fence who were taking pictures on my reaching Nathu La. @DefenceMinIndia pic.twitter.com/7cWImtmfLG
— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) October 7, 2017
Sitharaman was visiting the area amidst reports that China had strengthened its military presence on the Doklam Plateau and had also started widening an existing road -- the Doklam standoff had been triggered by Chinese road-building activity -- some 12 km from the Doklam face-off site.