The scaling up of the India-US strategic partnership to the level of non-NATO ally with defence deals, sharing and transfer of defence technology, interoperability, joint collaboration and joint production of defence equipment has exacerbated Moscow's anxiety, notes Rup Narayan Das.
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.
The talks took place in a beach resort in Benaulim on the sidelines of a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
Both India and China are in Phnom Penh to participate in the two-day East Asia Summit, an offshoot of the Asean meet. China and India, along with the US, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea are participating countries in EAS, besides the 10 Asean members.
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.
The two sides held talks on Tuesday as well but it could not produce any tangible outcome, the sources said.
The sources said both sides held extensive deliberations on modalities for disengagement of troops from all the friction points in eastern Ladakh at the talks.
The Russian embassy said in the spirit of the special and privileged strategic partnership with India, Moscow is committed to maintaining close dialogue with New Delhi on the situation around Ukraine.
Dai Bingguo, who served as the China's boundary negotiator with India from 2003 to 2013, told Chinese media, "If the Indian side takes care of China's concerns in the eastern sector of their border, the Chinese side will respond accordingly and address India's concerns elsewhere."
The two sides have already held at least 12 rounds of talks between local commanders and three rounds of talks between major general-rank officials but no positive outcome came out from the discussions, they said.
Both nations have to find ways to be sensitive to each other's politico-strategic and economic concerns, say Dr Rahul Mishra and Sana Hashmi.
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi will meet in Hyderabad in November first week for informal dialogue on the state of bilateral relations
The India that needs strategic alliances, defence cooperation and engaging meaningfully with neighbouring countries is quietly moving ahead with confidence, says Tarun Vijay
'The potential of one such LAC engagement going out of control and leading to heavy casualties cannot be ruled out,' warns Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd).
The ecosystems of India and China today jostle against one another across Asia and much of the world.
China has chosen to keep New Delhi guessing, while retaining for itself the option of constantly changing facts on the ground and shifting the LAC westwards -- the strategy called 'salami slicing', notes Ajai Shukla.
As Japan beefs up its defences against China, both New Delhi and Tokyo seem to have decided to re-energise their relationship to ensure a strategic balance in Asia. It is a clear signal that they may be ready to work together in containing if not confronting China, says Nitin Gokhale.
Addressing a symposium on the international situation and China's foreign relations in 2022, Wang said both countries have maintained communication through diplomatic and military-to-military channels.
The official told the reporters during a conference call on Friday, ahead of the next week's 2+2 India-US Ministerial in New Delhi, that the Trump administration was providing support to India through defence sales, joint military exercises and information sharing.
India would not be seen to be anything but rude with the Pakistanis. In the big picture, who is the bigger adversary right now? Who is the bigger pain in the neck? And who is it that is keeping more than 3,000 km of our borders active, throwing our military posture and deployments into imbalance? asks Shekhar Gupta.
If the chemistry between Modi and Xi Jinping goes well, it will herald a new future not just for the region but for the world, says Tarun Vijay.
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.
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 report said that Indian officials believe China is trying to contain India by forcing it to divert more resources into defending simultaneously both its western border with Pakistan and eastern flank with China and by weakening its willingness and ability to challenge Chinese ambitions to dominate the region.
The Modi government finds itself in a contradiction of its own making. It has encouraged pro-Russian, Westophobic public sentiment while setting strategic policy that's exactly the opposite, points out Shekhar Gupta.
'China knows the best way of twisting the knife in its dealings with India: By launching a major incursion into Indian territory,' says Rajeev Sharma.
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.
"No other relationship of India has as many layers as our relations with China. We are the world's two most populous countries and among the fastest growing major economies. Our cooperation is expanding," he said.
Over 68,000 Army soldiers, around 90 tanks and other weapon systems were airlifted by the Indian Air Force to eastern Ladakh from across the country for rapid deployment along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) after the deadly clashes in the Galwan Valley, top sources in defence and security establishment said.
India on Monday voiced its concern to China over its plan to build a multi-billion dollar Economic Corridor to Pakistan through POK, even as it assured Beijing of its commitment to consolidate strategic bilateral ties.
Playing down recent border stand off in Ladakh ahead of Premier Li Keqiang's visit to India, China on Thursday said the two sides have the ability to prevent such issues from affecting overall growth of ties, while working "very hard" to find a solution at an "early date".
Rup Narayan Das reveals the towering Odisha leader's role in improving national security after the 1962 War with China.
'The focus on countering terrorism brings to the issue Beijing's non-serious approach in this regard. India's permanent representative at the UN has raised in vain the issue of funding and the release of 26/11 suspect Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi. But China has blocked these objections since December 2014 at the UN even after 'highest levels' in India intervened,' notes Srikanth Kondapalli, reviewing the India-China military exercises in Kunming.
The chief of the army staff said that with one-third of the world in the Gulf region and elsewhere involved in some sort of conflict and war, "it is important that we keep the flames of fire away from our region."
'As China rises and India grows to reclaim their earlier positions on the world stage as two of the largest economies and most important countries, there will indeed be some contention between these two powers.' 'There will also be plenty of space and room for cooperation amongst the two of us.' 'As our economic size increases to match the fact that we are the two most populous nations on earth, it will be all the more important for us to keep the interests of our peoples as well as those of the rest of the world in mind.' 'We shall have to grow together rather than as separate and disparate entities,' points out Ambassador Gautam Bambawale -- who served as India's ambassador to China -- in the 7th annual lecture of the Indian Association of Foreign Affairs Correspondents on March 1, 2019.
China on Tuesday announced that its Defence Minister General Li Shangfu will visit India this week to attend the meeting of SCO defence ministers from April 27 during which he is expected to hold talks with his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh on ending the prolonged eastern Ladakh standoff which has severely strained bilateral ties.
Russia on Monday accused the US of "actively" exploiting the "contradictions" between India and China to its advantage and asserted Moscow and New Delhi accumulated mutual trust and confidence based on decades-old ties that would help the two sides to deal with the current geopolitical turbulence.
The Centre's interlocutor and retired IPS officer RN Ravi has been shifted from Nagaland to Tamil Nadu as its new governor.
'An opportunity is at hand to think big and recast the India-China relationship on a new template, which would help the pursuit of our country's dream of major power status,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The elephant in the room will permeate the conversations, predicts Rup Narayan Das.
