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.
Sources had earlier said that the areas and patrolling status were expected to be moved back to pre-April 2020 level.
The Jaishankar-Wang talks came amid the dragging border row in eastern Ladakh that entered its fifth year in May.
China on Tuesday confirmed that it has reached an agreement with India to end the standoff between the two armies in eastern Ladakh.
The ship will now arrive on August 16 and remain at the Hambantota port till August 22, they said.
The government needs to answer the critical question of whether it has accepted any restrictions on its infrastructure creation activities, asserts Ajai Shukla.
However, the Maldives government has no intention of removing the doctors from India at Senahiya, a media report said.
The Indian Army has commenced a verification patrolling at Depsang, the second friction point in eastern Ladakh, the government said on Saturday.
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.
India's engagement with China is "complex" and Chinese attempts to unilaterally alter the status quo along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh starting from April-May 2020 seriously disturbed the peace and tranquillity in border areas, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) said in a report on Monday.
China has defended its plan to build the world's largest dam on the Brahmaputra River in Tibet, assuring that the project will not affect riparian states and safety issues have been addressed through decades of studies. The dam, estimated to cost USD 137 billion, has raised concerns in India and Bangladesh, but Chinese authorities maintain that the project has been thoroughly studied and safeguards are in place. The dam is part of China's efforts to develop clean energy and respond to climate change.
'The Chinese staying put in Pangong Tso, and creating a buffer zone on Indian territory in other areas,' a senior serving general tells Ajai Shukla.
Sri Lanka's Hambantota Port authorities said the high-tech Chinese research vessel that was to dock there on Thursday won't reach the port as scheduled, according to a media report, days after India expressed security concerns over its presence in the island nation.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is in Moscow on a four-day visit to attend the meeting of foreign ministers of the SCO of which both India and China are members.
'Chinese government, people and the military were angry over India's dangerous move in Doklam'
Amid the diplomatic sparring and souring of bilateral ties in the wake of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's allegation of Indian involvement in the killing of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the Special Envoy and Coordinator, Global Engagement Centre, James Rubin said the standoff was a 'tricky subject' as he sought cooperation into the investigation as far as it goes.
'It is advisable for Indian interlocutors to follow the Chinese tactic of repeating the Indian position, both for the record and to test the Chinese negotiator's resolve and intentions.' A riveting excerpt from former foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale's The Long Game: How the Chinese Negotiate With India.
China during the weekend ordered the US to close its consulate in Chengdu within 72 hours in retaliation to the US demand for China to shut down its consulate in Houston.
Former US House Speaker Nancy Peolsi, who is part of a US bipartisan delegation which met with the Dalai Lama on Wednesday, launched a broadside against Chinese President Xi Jinping, stating that while the legacy of the Tibetan spiritual leader will live forever, Xi will be gone in a few years.
India and China on Friday held 'in-depth' discussions on addressing the remaining issues along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh, holding that disengagement in the North and South banks of Pangong lake provided a good basis to work towards their early resolution.
It would be the prime minister's first bilateral visit to the US after Trump became president for a second term.
At a media briefing, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said India monitors such developments.
At the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Xi Jinping and PM Shehbaz Sharif will attend via video conference, the 23rd meeting of the Council of Heads meeting of the SCO on July 4.
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval held a meeting with top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi during which he emphasised the need for continuing efforts to restore peace and tranquillity in the border areas to remove the 'impediments' to normalcy in bilateral relations.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will be on a two-day official visit to India from Thursday, his first trip to the country since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine last month.
The Chinese embassy, in a letter to some of the members of the All-Party Indian Parliamentary Forum for Tibet, expressed concern over their attendance at the event and asked them to refrain from providing support to Tibetan forces.
The US move came after the Justice Department said that hackers working with the Chinese government targeted firms developing vaccines for the coronavirus and stole hundreds of millions of dollars worth of intellectual property and trade secrets from companies across the world.
With Lok Sabha elections months away, the visits are vital politically as these would showcase Modi's standing as a world leader to the home electorate.
'Vijay Gokhale's appointment as foreign secretary can be regarded as a certain 'adjustment' that could make a difference to the poor climate of India-China relations,' says Ambassdor M K Bhadrakumar.
In their first structured bilateral talks in nearly five years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping Wednesday agreed that India and China can have a 'peaceful and stable' relationship by displaying maturity and mutual respect and endorsed the pact on the resolution of the dragging eastern Ladakh border row.
Disengagement from the LAC will remain a chimera because China has given enough indications that the PLA will not move back any more. China has even deployed drones to monitor and deny any patrolling by Indian troops even in the buffer zones which are all in Indian Territory, explains Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (retd).
China on Thursday said it 'firmly opposes' the United States recognition of Arunachal Pradesh as part of Indian territory and affirmed that Washington, DC has nothing to do with the India-China border dispute.
Both sides have completed creation of a buffer zone of three kilometres in the three friction points of Galwan Valley, Gogra and Hot Springs as part of a temporary measure aimed at reducing the possibility of any confrontation.
'China wants to change the status quo of India's Northern Border and proves that it can do whatever it wants in what it perceives as its own territory,' states Claude Arpi.
He highlighted how the ministry of foreign affairs of People's Republic of China in its statement made a mention of the Galwan Valley, but the Indian external affairs ministry did not do so.
However, that could only be for sectors where 100 per cent FDI is allowed under the automatic route and pose no risk to national security.
The External Affairs Ministry claimed that more than mere courtesies were exchanged between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China President Xi Jinping at Bali G20 Meet in November 2022.
Following the disengagement, both sides will soon start the coordinated patrolling in their respective areas, sources added.
Danti is highly focused on diplomatic entities. It may already have full access to internal networks in Indian government organisations.
The question and her reply did not figure in the official transcript of the media briefing posted on the Chinese foreign ministry website hours later.
