India on Monday announced it has reached an agreement with China on patrolling along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh, in a major breakthrough in ending the over four-year-long military standoff ahead of a likely meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Russia this week.
There seems to be a desire for opacity when it comes to confronting China, points out Aakar Patel.
Referring to the developments in Ladakh in the wake of Chinese aggression, he said disengagement with People's Liberation Army was completed from various areas in a peaceful manner and efforts are on through dialogue for disengagement from other areas.
Striking a combative posture amid deepening row over the South China Sea, China on Wednesday announced naval exercises in the Western Pacific asserting that its lawful rights including navigation should not be hindered.
Taiwan says it detected multiple Chinese aircraft and naval vessels taking part in military drills around the Taiwan Strait on Saturday, in what could be a possible simulated attack against the island.
The People's Liberation Army, of China has formed a special cyber warfare unit, called Blue Team, to safeguard the Internet security of the military, Chinese Defence Ministry has said.
It is the first time that Modi and Xi came face-to-face since the Chinese People's Liberation Army occupied Indian territory in Ladakh in April 2020.
Gandhi said he is with the family of the missing boy Miram Taron, and will not lose hope.
"There have been no intrusions or major face-offs in the area of responsibility of Eastern Command since the friction erupted in Ladakh," he said.
China and India have made 'positive progress' to resolve the border standoff, with both sides maintaining close communication through diplomatic and military channels, a senior foreign ministry official said in Beijing on Friday.
After getting a royal welcome in Arunachal Pradesh's Tawang, the Dalai Lama took on China, saying it is usual for the Chinese to oppose his visits everywhere.
India has already mobilised fighter jets and sent thousands of additional army troops to forward locations along the border with China after 20 Indian Army personnel were killed in a brutal attack by Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley on June 15.
If Prachanda is prudent and mature, he won't let relations with India be marred by anti-India posturing. Will he be able to do that? India's long border with Nepal has seen an unusual growth in madarssas and jihadi activities. Will Prachanda's Nepal help handle that?
Fifty years ago this day, October 23, Subedar Joginder Singh began the battle of his life. On learning that Joginder Singh was a Param Vir Chakra awardee, the People's Liberation Army, in a mark of respect for which the Chinese are not renowned, repatriated his ashes with full military honours. No tribute can be greater than an avowal of valour by the enemy. M P Anil Kumar pays tribute to one of India's brave heroes.
Gandhi also raised questions over the Union territory status given to Ladakh after the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories following the abrogation of Article 370.
China is expected to boost its nuclear arsenal after President Xi Jinping's remarks at the key Congress of the ruling Communist Party in Beijing for the first time that Beijing will establish strong strategic deterrence, experts have said.
However, the deployment in the frontline areas has remained the same and the troops from both sides remain in an eyeball to eyeball situation at several locations in that sector.
'The immediate attempt by China is to get its way and gain territory through small steps without having a full-scale war.'
Throughout its standoff with India along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), Chinese officials sought to downplay the severity of the crisis, emphasising Beijing's intent to preserve border stability and prevent the standoff from harming other areas of its bilateral relationship with India, the Pentagon said in a report on Tuesday.
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.
These missiles have a range of two to five km and they are capable of bringing down low flying helicopters and aircraft, they added.
This is probably the first time Rahul Gandhi is attending this committee's meeting since being nominated to the panel last year after Lok Sabha elections.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official asserted that it is known that China used these balloons for surveillance.
A Chinese general on Friday termed as 'flagrant provocation' United States' plans to send a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to the Yellow Sea and said the country would retaliate if 'offended.'
Member of Parliament from Arunachal Pradesh Tapir Gao said on Wednesday that a teenager, identified as Miram Taron, was abducted by the People's Liberation Army from Lungta Jor area under Siyungla area on Tuesday.
The Chinese military has opened its first cyber base headquarters but has assured that the facility was not aimed at launching cyber war.
The deployment of strategic bomber aircraft is also still on by the Chinese
The two sides also decided on early operationalisation of the proposed hotline between the two armies as part of the confidence building measures, the defence ministry said.
Asked about the continued tensions along the border and whether the PLA troops action was anyway related to the disagreements with the Indian government's plan to lure business out of China, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said both the countries were in diplomatic contact over the face-off between their troops.
'With continued focus on votes, upcoming by-polls and purchasing politicians, the political hierarchy has little time for national defence.' 'They would do well to heed a veteran scholar, who says, "There will be war with China in the next few years. The next full scale war will have the involvement of Pakistan and terror elements, insurgents and intelligence assets operating inside India",' warns Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (retd).
In the two years since the PLA's intrusions into Eastern Ladakh, the Border Roads Organisation is sparing no effort to build and upgrade road highways from Tezpur to the McMahon Line.
The Chinese military, on the last day of its largest-ever military exercises to vent out its anger over United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, carried out island saturation attack drills in the Taiwan Straits, amid global concerns of a full-scale attack to annex the breakaway island which Beijing claims is part of its territory.
'No military offensive by Pakistan will end the insurgency in Balochistan without simultaneous, concerted efforts toward political dialogue to de-escalate tensions.'
'Pakistan's only concern has been while they were on the FATF watch list was to distance their State institutions and organs from any direct connection with the actual execution of militancy inside Kashmir.'
It was a scene of bonhomie as the border personnel of India and China met to mark the Republic Day in Chushul belt along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh, putting behind the tension over recent incursions by the People's Liberation Army in the area.
The explosion ripped through the provincial capital Quetta's railway station as passengers gathered on the platform before the scheduled departure of the Jaffar Express to Peshawar.
Rajnath Singh believes it would be naive to see disengagement of the armies from the LAC as the end of the trouble. The defence minister has urged the defence forces to be ready for a long haul
The PLA choppers violated Indian airspace in the Chumar sector on July 11 around 0800 hours and returned after flying for some time there, sources said.
The Indian Army has been slow to react. Indian troops have deployed in the vicinity of PLA incursions, but there are no attempts to outflank Chinese positions.
The CSG is one of the topmost bodies in the government which provides directions to the military and diplomats on the stand to be taken during talks with the Chinese and also take a stand on the points and demands raised by the Chinese side.
