External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi met in Moscow on Thursday amid hopes of a possible breakthrough in reducing tensions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.
Russian news agency TASS, quoting a Kremlin official, said holding of the RIC (Russia-India-China) summit figured in during a recent video conference between President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
The ministry of home affairs on Tuesday clarified India's stand of giving Asylum to Myanmar refugees, saying that the country is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol thereon.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in India Thursday evening in the highest-level visit between the two countries after the ties came under severe strain following the eastern Ladakh standoff nearly two years ago.
Xi Jinping will visit Pakistan this year after a cancelled a trip in 2014.
'It is flabbergasting to think that this heavenly region has, for decades, been coveted by India's aggressive neighbours,' says Claude Arpi after a recent visit to Ladakh. 'Wanting to use the newly created infrastructure to defend the borders after the clash of 2020 with China and the resulting standoffs, the home ministry is keen to boost border tourism to show that these areas are controlled by India.'
'China seems more intent on creating a new world order rather than shaping the existing one.' 'India is of course, at this moment in time, aligned with the West-led order because of China's full-spectrum aggressive behaviour towards India.'
Bhutan on Thursday announced that it firmed up a "three-step roadmap" for expediting the negotiations with China to resolve the long-pending boundary dispute between the two countries, a development that India said it has taken note of.
Pakistani security forces on Thursday raided the house of the father of the woman suicide bomber from Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) who blew herself up in Karachi University that killed three Chinese teachers and injured another.
On the border dispute, officials on both sides say the protracted boundary talks made progress, while both sides made attempts to avert tensions along the 3,488-kilometre-long Line of Actual Control, which remains undefined.
China on Monday waded into the furore over the controversial remarks by two now-suspended Bharatiya Janata Party functionaries against Prophet Mohammed, expressing the hope that the incident can be properly managed.
India has told China that disengagement at all friction points is necessary to contemplate de-escalation of troops in eastern Ladakh even as the foreign ministers of the two countries agreed to establish a hotline for "timely" communication and exchange of views.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing that "the Indian side should fully recognise the anti-China separatist nature of the 14th Dalai Lama."
India on Friday rejected China's contention that it must sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty to get membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
There was no official word on the outcome of the talks.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he was taking action against an unspecified number of Chinese officials, including from the ruling Communist Party, under a US law that calls on China to let Americans visit Tibet.
'The meeting marks the first tentative step in the effort to understand whether the two largest Asian nations can co-exist peacefully while realising their aspirations.' 'Caution and watchful wariness will dominate the effort of both sides,' says Jayadeva Ranade, former RA&W officer and China expert.
Important for Chinese President Xi Jinping will be Zhao's discussions on the issues of Tibet and the Dalai Lama and his assessment of the likely results of India's coming national elections, notes former senior RA&W officer and China expert Jayadeva Ranade.
Among other things, taking note of complaints against several Chinese e-commerce players such as Shein, Ali Express etc for sending shipments as 'gifts' to customers in India and avoiding duties, the government has now mandated that all e-commerce sites and apps must have a registered business entity. This will be the importer on record and subject to customs rules, report Subhayan Chakraborty, Neha Alawadhi and Karan Choudhury.
China on Thursday told Pakistan's new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that it will always put its "all-weather ally" as a priority in its neighbourhood diplomacy as it praised his commitment to promote the USD 60 billion CPEC initiative.
Key to China's decision regarding Taiwan will be its leadership's assessment whether the US will come to Taiwan's defence, explains Jayadeva Ranade, the former senior RA&W officer and China expert.
'They also agreed that for the overall development of bilateral relations it was essential to maintain enduring peace and tranquillity in the border areas,' the MEA said in a statement.
Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla terms India's relationship with China as "complex".
How will the Modi Sarkar's likely return affect other nations?
Riled by Sri Lanka's request to defer the planned docking of a high-tech Chinese research vessel at the strategic Hambantota Port, China on Monday took a dig at India, saying it was "senseless to pressure" Colombo by citing the issue of security concerns.
The comments by External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava came at a media briefing when asked about the fresh comments by the Chinese foreign ministry blaming India again for the border situation in eastern Ladakh.
By passing this bill, Congress is showing that the US will not turn a blind eye to the suffering of the oppressed, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said.
The remarks by the Chinese foreign ministry came a day after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo assured India that the US stands firmly with it to confront threats to its sovereignty.
"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.
China is a permanent member of the UNSC while India began its two-year tenure as a non-permanent member on January 1.
Observers say China should re-address its policies towards India or else it will continue to face flare-ups increasing the tensions between the two countries at a time China's increasing tension with the US over Taiwan and the South China Sea besides the downturn in the Chinese economy which is hit hard by the zero-covid policy.
China may accord recognition to the new government in Kabul at an early opportunity, predicts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar
The MEA said the two sides agreed to continue discussions through diplomatic and military channels to resolve the remaining issues "at the earliest" so as to create conditions for the restoration of normalcy in the bilateral relations.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi made Bhutan the destination of his first foreign visit. Now two weeks later, the foreign minister of the Himalayan kingdom, Rinzin Dorje, is in Beijing discussing the China-Bhutan border issue. The move poses a serious challenge to New Delhi because any negotiation on China-Bhutan border dispute is bound to affect India's border negotiations with China. Bhutan and China share 470 kilometres of border, which is also close to India's 'chicken's neck' -- the narrow Siliguri corridor which links the northeast.
The talks will focus on 'delimitation of the border, boundary management and a host of bilateral and international issues'.
China, which has territorial disputes with many countries in the strategic Indo-Pacific region, has been opposing the Quad alliance since its formation.
During their hour-long in-person meeting on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) conclave in Dushanbe on Wednesday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also told his Chinese counterpart and State Councilor Wang Yi that any unilateral change in the status quo along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) was 'not acceptable' to India and that the overall ties can only develop after full restoration of peace and tranquillity in eastern Ladakh.
The frontline troops of China and India have "completed" disengagement at most locations of their border, a senior Chinese official said on Tuesday, adding the situation on the ground is easing.
Military clashes between China and Japan cannot be ruled out and the People's Liberation Army will fight back if provoked, a top Chinese official said on Monday.
Much to the surprise of Beijing, Nepal's Parliament on Sunday ratified the contentious US-funded $500 million Millennium Challenge Corporation compact along with an interpretive declaration a day ahead of the February 28 deadline set by Washington.
