The balloon, which was being used by the People's Republic of China in an attempt to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States, was brought down above US territorial waters.
The decision was taken during a meeting between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Pakistan counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the southwestern the Chinese city of Chengdu on Saturday.
China has approved the construction of the world's largest dam on the Brahmaputra River in Tibet, close to the Indian border. The USD 137 billion project, which is expected to dwarf even China's own Three Gorges Dam, has raised concerns in India and Bangladesh, the downstream riparian states. Concerns in India are centered around China's potential to control water flow, potentially enabling the release of large amounts of water to flood border areas in times of hostilities. The dam is part of China's 14th Five-Year Plan, and the Chinese government claims that the project is safe and prioritizes ecological protection.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman displayed the photographs of the alleged Indian "incursion" into the area during a media briefing.
Chinese and Russian warplanes on Tuesday conducted joint air patrols over the Sea of Japan, the East China Sea and the West Pacific Ocean as the leaders of Quad held their in-person summit in Tokyo, in an apparent attempt to send a message of unity between Beijing and Moscow.
China's high-tech research vessel 'Yuan Wang 5' is on a 'mission of peace and friendship' and its docking at a Sri Lankan port will deepen bilateral relations in the field of space, science and technology, according to the controversial ship's captain.
"Due to scheduling reasons, it is inconvenient for China to attend the meeting," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told mediapersons.
Qin, 57, was made the foreign minister in December last year, superseding many seniors, earning the distinction of a rising star in the ruling Communist Party of China.
Besides Beijing, Vajpayee would travel to Shanghai, China's largest city and commercial hub, and the Buddhist city of Luoyang in central China.
China will host the third meeting of the foreign ministers of Afghanistan's neighbours in Tunxi, central China's Anhui province, on March 30-31, the spokesperson said.
"The reservoir capacity of the project is less than 0.02 per cent of the average annual runoff of the Yarlung Zangbo-Brahmaputra. It cannot have an adverse impact on the downstream," Chinese foreign ministry said to a question on concerns over the dam.
The talks will focus on 'delimitation of the border, boundary management and a host of bilateral and international issues'.
"India has made a cogitative decision, and shows the common views of China and India in fighting terrorism and separatism, and the determination of further cooperation," Fu Xiaoqiang, an expert on South Asian studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times.
Speculation about the missing Chinese Defence Minister General Li Shangfu may have been removed and detained became rife after he was conspicuously absent at the meeting of the Central Military Commission (CMC) in Beijing on Friday.
The Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) was established in 2012 as an institutional mechanism for consultation and coordination for the maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the border areas.
The Indian Army has commenced a verification patrolling at Depsang, the second friction point in eastern Ladakh, the government said on Saturday.
From India's neighbourhood and extended neighbourhood, presidents of Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Iran, Seychelles and prime ministers of Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Mauritius have sent congratulatory greetings to Modi.
China and the US flexed their naval might by deploying aircraft carriers in a rare showdown in the Taiwan Strait, the narrow channel that separates the Chinese mainland from Taiwan, as Beijing fumed over US House Speaker's meeting with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in Washington.
Sources had earlier said that the areas and patrolling status were expected to be moved back to pre-April 2020 level.
A high-tech Chinese research ship docked at the strategically important Hambantota port departed from Sri Lankan waters on Monday after a controversial six-day visit.
It would be the prime minister's first bilateral visit to the US after Trump became president for a second term.
"On the border issue, China always maintains that we should follow through on treaties and agreements we signed and we jointly uphold peace and tranquility at the border region," Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said while responding to Jaishankar's remarks.
China on Monday criticised Home Minister Amit Shah's visit to Arunachal Pradesh, stating that it violated Chinese sovereignty over the area, a claim outrightly dismissed by India.
China routinely objects to Indian leaders' visits to Arunachal Pradesh to buttress its stand.
In underlining the role of border villages as custodians of India's frontiers, New Delhi is following China's example in Tibet.
In a rare honour, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would visit and address China's ruling Communist Party's Central School during his visit in Beijing next week besides holding in-depth talks with Chinese leaders.
"China's position on the Zangnan region (South Tibet) is consistent and clear. We never recognised the so-called Arunachal Pradesh," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing while responding to a question.
Without mentioning the boundary dispute, the spokesperson said that China-India relations have been stable on the whole and "our two sides have maintained dialogue and communication at various levels".
Jaishankar said that both sides also exchanged views on the next steps in the India-China bilateral ties.
The commerce ministry has recommended the continuation of anti-dumping duty on a Chinese chemical used in food and pharma industry with a view to guard domestic players from cheap imports. In a notification, the ministry's investigation arm, the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR), has said there is a "positive" evidence of likelihood of dumping of Sodium Citrate and injury to the domestic industry if the existing anti-dumping duty were to be removed.
"The meeting thus did not result in resolution of the remaining areas," the Army said in a statement.
External affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that the birthday greetings by the prime minister to the Dalai Lama should be seen in this overall context.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's plane landed in Taiwan amid a heightened security threat from China, media reports said on Tuesday.
Outgoing Indian envoy to China Vikram Misri on Monday had a virtual farewell call on Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during which he said that "certain challenges" had overpowered the vast opportunities in the bilateral ties last year and hoped that with continued communication the two sides would be able to resolve the current difficulties.
The PLA said the move has 'seriously damaged' border peace and tranquillity.
China on Friday announced sanctions on US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her immediate family members for her visit to Taiwan this week, disregarding the strident warnings from Beijing, asserting that it violated China's sovereignty and the "One China policy".
There was no comment from the Indian side on the statement made by the Chinese defence ministry spokesperson Colonel Wu Qian, and carried by China's official media.
The US and China have sparred over the origin of the virus for days, with a Chinese official promoting conspiracy theories.
Ahead of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to New Delhi next month, India and China will hold the 14th round of boundary talks in Beijing on November 29-30, the Chinese foreign ministry announced on Tuesday.
While praising the Indian government for cracking down on anti-Chinese activities on its soil, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has called on Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama to stop indulging in separatist activities and create conducive conditions for talks with Beijing.
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