The US has all along interfered in India-China issues. The objective is clear: Bring the Sino-Indian standoff to a flashpoint that would compel Modi government to take shelter under an American umbrella, argues Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The meeting came after the Indian Army thwarted an attempt by the Chinese Army to transgress into Indian areas near the southern bank of Pangong Tso near Chushul in Ladakh on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday.
India and China agreed during their military talks on Sunday to stay in close touch and work out a mutually acceptable solution to the "remaining issues" in eastern Ladakh at the earliest, but there was no indication of clear forward movement in ending their three-year-long border standoff.
Chinese mobile manufacturer Vivo will return to sponsor the IPL this season after its attempts to transfer the rights to another company failed to materialise as offers were not upto its "expectations".
The last round of Corps Commander-level talks had taken place on October 12 but there was no breakthrough on the disengagement of troops from the friction points.
The DG of the ITBP said his troops have been provided with special winter clothing and nutritious food as they brave the severe chill in eastern Ladakh where the armies of India and China are locked in a tense standoff for over six months. He said 'strains in bilateral relations are already evident but we are confident these will be sorted out peacefully very shortly'.
The decision to disengage the forces, locked in a bitter standoff for the last six weeks in eastern Ladakh, was taken at a nearly 11-hour-long meeting between senior Indian and Chinese commanders in Moldo on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) on Monday.
If Indian strategists think that the 60 billion dollars bilateral trade with China is an insurance against a Chinese surge along the borders, they are mistaken.
When China protested strongly over the August decision on J&K -- not once but twice -- we ignored it. And to compound matters, we simply turned our back and walked over to the 'Quad' alliance with the US, upgrading it to ministerial level, and thereafter began following the American footfalls on Taiwan and COVID-19 to taunt and humiliate Beijing, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The armies are working to schedule their seventh round of talks to take steps towards "early and complete" disengagement of troops along the LAC in eastern Ladakh.
The Indian delegation led by Lt General Harinder Singh, the general officer commanding of Leh-based 14 Corps, and Commander of the Tibet Military District Maj Gen Liu Lin held an extensive meeting in Maldo on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh on Saturday that began at around 11.30 am and went on till evening.
'We should carefully handle issues concerning each other's core interests. We should properly manage and control problems that cannot be solved for the time being'
"CCP's (Chinese Communist Party) territorial aggression is also apparent on its Indian border where China has attempted to seize control of the Line of Actual Control by force," US National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien said in a remark on China early this week in Utah.
Claiming that its troops had 'never crossed' the Line of Actual Control with India, China on Tuesday said it always respected bilateral agreements on maintaining peace and tranquillity in border areas. "China's border personnel have been respecting the two agreements made between the two countries to maintain peace and tranquillity in border areas and have never crossed the LAC," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a media briefing in Beijing.
The border personal meeting was marked by saluting the national flags by both the delegations members.
With regard to where relations between New Delhi and Beijing stand, the Union minister said that he does not have a definite answer to offer at "this moment".
It is apparent that an easing of tensions at the border and a disengagement of troops is on the cards, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Last week, China's national legislature adopted the new law on the protection and exploitation of the land border areas, which could have bearing on Beijing's border dispute with India.
'The two sides should support rather than undermine each other, strengthen cooperation rather than guard against each other, and enhance mutual trust rather than be suspicious of each other'
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang will travel to India to attend the meeting of G20 foreign ministers on March 2, during which he is expected to hold his first bilateral meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
On May 5, around 250 Indian and Chinese army personnel clashed with iron rods, sticks, and even resorted to stone-pelting in Pangong Tso lake area in Eastern Ladakh.
At an online media briefing, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava gave a run down of the events along the LAC in the eastern Ladakh region and held China responsible for the Galwan Valley clashes off June 15.
'Our strategy should be to 'hold the line' in the north on the Sino-Indian land frontier, but maintain and, if possible, enlarge India's current edge in the maritime south.'
'Leaders of the two nations have reportedly agreed to set up a hotline between their respective military headquarters,' state-run Global Times daily reported on Wednesday.
"The meeting thus did not result in resolution of the remaining areas," the Army said in a statement.
'The Chinese are retaining geostrategic pressure on India by keeping troops there and building infrastructure continually.'
Villagers living along the India-China border in Arunachal Pradesh said on Wednesday that Chinese incursions were a result of lack of border demarcation.
Tharoor said the Congress should stand up for its foundational principles.
The Indian delegation at Thursday's talks is likely to be led by Naveen Srivastava, Joint Secretary (East Asia) in the external affairs ministry, they said.
"India and China are in communication and negotiations on lowering the temperatures through military and diplomatic channels. No party should engage in any action that may escalate the situation at this point," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said during a briefing when asked about the Prime Minister's visit.
India on Thursday strongly rejected China renaming 15 places in Arunachal Pradesh and asserted that the state has 'always been' and will 'always be' an integral part of India and that assigning 'invented' names does not alter this fact.
The remarks of White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki came ahead of the 14th round of military-level talks between India and China on the 20-month row in eastern Ladakh.
The next phase of the de-escalation process will kick off only after the fourth round of talks between corps commanders of the two sides.
The Wednesday talks took place amid a war of words between the two sides on perception of the LAC, the de-facto Sino-India border spanning a length of nearly 3,500 km.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Friday that India and China are going through a 'particularly bad patch' in their ties because Beijing has taken a set of actions in violation of agreements for which it still doesn't have a 'credible explanation' and it is for the Chinese leadership to answer where they want to take the bilateral relationship.
Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla terms India's relationship with China as "complex".
The joint statement said Jaishankar and Wang agreed that both sides should take guidance from the series of consensus reached between leaders of the two countries on developing India-China relations, including not allowing differences to become disputes.
The incident took place on Wednesday afternoon in Demchok sector, located 250 km east of Leh, where the work for linking a village with 'hot spring' was being undertaken under the MNREGA.
The meeting will take place in Chushul sector on the Indian side of Line of Actual Control.
'Given the way in which the PLA operates today, I don't believe local commanders were necessarily acting without approval of higher levels.' 'They were acting in a way which they believed they were carrying out the intent of the higher levels.'
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