India and China on Monday held a fresh round of military talks with a focus on disengagement of troops in the remaining friction points in eastern Ladakh and ease overall tensions in the region.
'The Modi government is trying to suppress the matter only to save its political image'
China on Wednesday said the latest round of the border talks with India was held in a "candid and pragmatic atmosphere" and the two sides had a "positive, constructive and in-depth discussion" on the resolution of the remaining issues along the Line of Actual Control in the Western Sector.
India on Monday pressed for early disengagement of troops in remaining friction points in eastern Ladakh during a fresh round of high-level military talks with China, people familiar with the matter said.
'In the short term the relationship will get worse.'
China on Friday said it will not attend the planned G20 tourism working group meeting in Jammu and Kashmir next week, asserting that it is "firmly opposed" to holding such meetings in the "disputed territory".
India is set to press for early disengagement of troops from the remaining friction points in eastern Ladakh at a fresh round of high-level military talks with China on August 14, people familiar with the matter said on Saturday.
He alleged that India "lost access to 26 out of 65 Patrolling Points" which was not the case before May 2020, and questioned the Modi government's "silence" on the issue.
'Which will not happen.' 'Foreign Minister S Jaishankar has expressly refuted Beijing's statement that normalcy was returning to Sino-Indian relations.'
'In Eastern Ladakh the Chinese attempted salami slicing.' 'Our response has been superb. Our military has responded magnificently.'
The talks between the two sides near Galwan Valley ended in a stalemate on Tuesday as well as Wednesday, the sources said.
Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan on Tuesday said the deployment of the Chinese military on India's northern borders is not increasing day by day.
In his memoir Four Stars of Destiny, Naravane recounts Singh's direction as well as a flurry of phone calls between the defence minister, external affairs minister, the national security advisor and the chief of defence staff that night on the sensitive situation.
India has not yet received any confirmation on Chinese President Xi Jinping's in-person participation at the upcoming G20 summit, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday amid reports that he is likely skip the conclave.
The situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC)in eastern Ladakh remained 'very fragile' and is 'quite dangerous' in military assessment because of close deployments of troops of both sides in some pockets though substantial progress has been made in the disengagement process in many areas, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday.
Two days ago, the Chinese foreign ministry following a meeting between NSA Ajit Doval and top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi in Johannesburg claimed that Xi and Modi had reached an 'important consensus' on stabilising bilateral ties at the interaction on the margins of the G20 Summit last November.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday asserted that India's relationship with China cannot be normal unless there is peace in the border areas and there is no ambiguity in New Delhi's signalling to that country.
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.
A start-up firm in Noida said soon after the Galwan Valley clash, it was tasked by the Indian security forces to provide them equipment to be able to tackle the Chinese and they have provided them solutions in the form of non-lethal weapons inspired by the traditional Indian weapons like the 'Trishul' of Lord Shiva.
New Delhi's reaction came in response to Beijing announcing Chinese names for 11 more places in Arunachal Pradesh which the neighbouring country claims as southern part Tibet.
The defence minister also took an indirect dig at Gandhi for "doubting" the government's intention in the handling of the border row with China and said politics can not be done on the basis of "falsehood".
Of late, war films -- particularly those that tell stories of the 1971 War and Kargil -- have been produced.
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.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Johannesburg are being finalised, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said on Monday but did not give a direct reply on the possibility of a meeting between Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The US provided crucial intelligence to the Indian military last year that helped it successfully tackle the Chinese "incursions".
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.
"We hope the Indian side will move towards China and through concrete actions implement the consensus and continue the close communication through military and diplomatic channels to jointly push for the de-escalation on the border region," Zhao said.
It is when one looks away from the immediate song and dance and at the granular detail of what has been going on since 2014 that one realises what the quality and competence of thinking and execution is in this project we call New India, asserts Aakar Patel.
"The current border situation is overall stable," the Chinese diplomat said.
The major general-level meeting discussed ways to implement the disengagement of troops from Galwan Valley as agreed during high-level military talks between the two sides on June 6. The Indian delegation at the talks was led by Leh-based 3 Infantry Division commander Major General Abhijit Bapat. The two sides held Major General-level talks on Tuesday as well.
The Indian Army has released photos and videos of its soldiers playing cricket at a very high-altitude forward location in eastern Ladakh amid the lingering border row with China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the region.
The relations between India and China cannot be normal if peace and tranquillity in border areas are disturbed, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Friday.
The development comes after the army said India lost an officer and two soldiers during the violent face-off, while there were casualties on the Chinese side as well in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the first such incident in the last 45 years that reflected massive escalation in the five-week border row.
The Indian Army has deployed a significant number of easily transportable M-777 ultra-light howitzers in mountainous regions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Arunachal Pradesh, military officials said on Thursday.
The Indian and Chinese troops are locked in an over three-year confrontation in certain friction points in eastern Ladakh even as the two sides completed disengagement from several areas following extensive diplomatic and military talks.
The last time the Chinese military had taken Indian soldiers captive was in July 1962 after a clash in Galwan Valley.
Lt Gen Dwivedi, who was referring to the clash between the Indian soldiers and Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in June 2020, also said that PLA's aggression in eastern Ladakh was met with "swift mobilisation and appropriate force posturing".
Senior officers recounted extreme Chinese brutality to the Indian prisoners, with some of them being pushed over cliffs and soldiers' bodies being recovered from the Galwan River.
One hopes, though one is not optimistic, that this action to some extent corrects the lunacy which has infected our national media and has damaged our nation, notes Aakar Patel.
General Manoj Chandrasekhar Pande visited forward areas in Ladakh for the first time after he took over as chief of the army staff on Saturday, May 14, 2022.
