China on Friday operationalised its first fully electrified bullet train in the remote Himalayan region of Tibet, connecting the provincial capital Lhasa and Nyingchi, a strategically located Tibetan border town close to Arunachal Pradesh.
The papers presented by Indian Police Service officers at the just concluded conference of director generals of police (DGPs) and inspector generals of police (IGPs) submit that by providing huge amounts of money in the name of loans for developmental works in Southeast and South Asia, China wants to reduce India's influence in the Indian Ocean region and force resolution of bilateral issues on Beijing's terms.
Indian policymakers are almost alone, alongside the United States, in seeking a hard and multi-sectoral global decoupling from China in the expectation that it will boost their economies, observes Mihir S Sharma.
Talking about the threat of terrorism, he said "As diverse and pluralistic societies, we both face threats from fundamentalist terrorism. Yet, we do not seem to be able to cooperate as effectively we should in some critical international forums dealing with this subject."
This includes over $15 billion of proposed investment in the infrastructure sector in the Indo-Pacific and $9 billion for shoring up American defence in the region.
Three countries share a common interest in warding off cyber attacks from various agencies PLA is developing and training in China.
The report said that Indian officials believe China is trying to contain India by forcing it to divert more resources into defending simultaneously both its western border with Pakistan and eastern flank with China and by weakening its willingness and ability to challenge Chinese ambitions to dominate the region.
Rather, cold reactions are expected considering the contentious issues the US is bound to raise -- Taiwan, human rights, and North Korea.
'Unless India ups the ante, Beijing will continue to believe its transgressions are cost free and will feel encouraged to do more of the same.'
China has spent half a century plotting to defeat America and in some respects, the Chinese military is already at par with the US armed forces, Haley said in a major policy speech on the economy in the key early primary State of New Hampshire on Friday.
India on Thursday said it promotes engagement with Taiwan in several areas including trade and investment and Taipei's decision to open an economic and cultural centre in Mumbai should be seen in that context.
The resolution condemns additional Chinese provocations, including China's use of military force to change the status quo along the Line of Actual Control, construction of villages in contested areas, publication of maps with Mandarin-language names for cities and features in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, and expansion of Beijing's territorial claims in Bhutan.
Keen to capitalise on the growing geopolitical support from African nations after the recently concluded G20 Summit, India is working with the African Union to hold the fourth India-Africa Forum Summit later this year in Kenya's Nairobi, sources said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to attend the mega meet along with as many as 50 African leaders, they added. First held in New Delhi in 2008, the India-Africa Forum Summit marked India's initial diplomatic efforts to seek a comprehensive partnership with the African bloc of nations as a whole, at a time when China had begun its own outreach.
China on Tuesday angrily denounced the nuclear-powered submarine deal announced by the US, UK and Australia, saying the pact violates the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the three countries are travelling "further down the dangerous and wrong path."
Iran and Saudi Arabia have agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations and reopen embassies after talks in Beijing between officials from the two rival Middle East powers, Iranian state media reported on Friday.
India overtook China to add the most number of new unicorns--start-ups valued at $1 billion or more--in the first half of 2022 despite a funding winter haunting entrepreneurs in the south Asian nation. India added 14 new unicorns in the period (H1 2022) and China had 11, according to the Hurun Global Unicorn Index 2022. The US led the ranking by adding 138 start-ups in the unicorn club.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the United States this month will set new benchmarks for bilateral ties and some 'really big, historic and exciting' announcements are likely to be made on defence cooperation and boosting India's indigenous military industrial base, the Pentagon has said.
The Sheikh Hasina-Narendra Modi summit put India-Bangladesh ties on a firmer pitch. Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd) takes stock.
Xi has called on Chinese border troops to enhance their capabilities in border defence and control to forge a "great wall of steel" along the country's borders, it said.
Extending their rally to a third straight day, benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty jumped nearly 2 per cent on Monday on heavy buying in Reliance Industries and Infosys amid a firm trend in global equities. The 30-share BSE Sensex rallied 1,041.08 points or 1.90 per cent to settle at 55,925.74. During the day, it gained 1,197.99 points or 2.18 per cent to 56,082.65. The broader NSE Nifty jumped 308.95 points or 1.89 per cent to settle at 16,661.40.
With Fujian, China's third and most advanced aircraft carrier, having started sea trials last week, the PLA needed at least 200 qualified carrier-based fighter jet pilots to operate 130 ship-borne aircraft.
China said it has suspended the project due to security concerns from a third party.
EAM Jaishankar's mission is aimed at strengthening India's strategic autonomy in a complex international environment, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'Which will not happen.' 'Foreign Minister S Jaishankar has expressly refuted Beijing's statement that normalcy was returning to Sino-Indian relations.'
Four-nation grouping Quad on Tuesday launched a major new initiative for the Indo-Pacific that allows the partner countries to fully monitor the waters on their shores and help ensure peace and stability in the region, a move that comes amid China's increasingly intimidatory behaviour.
The Indian position on the Russia-Ukraine war and the unconditional treaty between China and Russia appear to have caused some ripples in India-US relations and led to a reappraisal of India's usefulness to the US in the eventuality of a conflict with China, notes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
According to the experts, a lot of countries have little or no faith in Chinese companies because of poor after-sales support and equipment that rapidly declines into non-functional machinery.
"We value our partnership with India, and we've been increasing it and doing a lot more, over time. They have the same security challenge, primary security challenger that we do, and it's real on their northern border," Admiral John Christopher Aquilino, commander of United States Indo-Pacific Command, told members of the House Armed Services Committee during a hearing on Indo-Pacific National Security Challenges.
Blinken also underlined that diplomacy is the only way to definitively end the Russian conflict in Ukraine.
Tesla Inc, the world's largest electric car producer, is looking to make a significant investment in India, said its chief Elon Musk, who saw India as holding more promise than any other large country around the globe. Musk, after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said he plans to visit India in 2024. "I am confident that Tesla will be in India and we will do so as soon as humanly possible," Musk told reporters after the meeting.
Amidst growing tension with China over a suspected surveillance balloon, US President Joe Biden has said that the United States will act to protect if Beijing threatens its sovereignty.
'The group commands 85 per cent of the global GDP, and if you are able to convey your point of view effectively to this group then you have reached more or less all the important players that matter.'
As US President Joe Biden launched a new trade deal with 12 Indo-Pacific nations, including India, to enhance trade, economic and investment opportunities, China, which sees the pact as a threat to its dominance in the region, went on the offensive against it, promising more opening up, while the official media here termed it as "economic Nato".
China dismissed the reports as groundless.
Xioami, currently the world's third-largest smartphone maker, is now planning to raise about $1.5 billion in its fifth round of financing, media reports said.
The Indian and Chinese troops have been locked in a tense border standoff in eastern Ladakh since May 5, 2020, when a violent clash between the two sides erupted in the Pangong lake area.
Chinese phone maker Xiaomi's India unit has been slapped with a Rs 653 crore notice for alleged evasion of import duty, as per an official statement. A show-cause notice has been slapped on Xiaomi India following recovery of documents during searches on its premises that indicated remittance of royalty and licence fee to US and Chinese firms under contractual obligations, the union finance ministry said on Wednesday. Replying to an email query, a Xiaomi spokesperson said, "At Xiaomi India, we give utmost importance to ensuring we comply with all Indian laws.
The further expansion and upgrade of the Chinese military does not augur well for India, which continues to confront an increasingly belligerent China on its borders, notes former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
