Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping shook hands on Tuesday at a side event at the G20 Summit in Bali, a gesture drawing some attention because of the strained relations between the two countries over a border clash two years back.
'China is unwilling to restore the status quo ante of April 2020.' 'India will have to weigh its options based on this premise.'
'Unless India ups the ante, Beijing will continue to believe its transgressions are cost free and will feel encouraged to do more of the same.'
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.
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.
The papers presented by Indian Police Service officers at the just concluded conference of director generals of police (DGPs) and inspector generals of police (IGPs) submit that by providing huge amounts of money in the name of loans for developmental works in Southeast and South Asia, China wants to reduce India's influence in the Indian Ocean region and force resolution of bilateral issues on Beijing's terms.
"All temporary structures and other allied infrastructure created in the area by both sides have been dismantled and mutually verified. The landform in the area has been restored by both sides to the pre-standoff period," the Army said in a statement.
Another round of diplomatic talks under the framework of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination is expected to be scheduled soon.
The talks till now have resulted in the resolution of issues in North and South Bank of Pangong Tso, Galwan and Gogra Hot Spring areas.
'It is a game of patience. We have to stand firm and tire them out, which we are doing.'
China has protested to India over Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat's reported remarks about Beijing constituting the "biggest security threat", the Ministry of Defence here said on Thursday.
In a statement, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said the focus of Modi's remarks at the meeting on Friday was the events of June 15 at Galwan that led to the loss of lives of 20 Indian military personnel.
In an interactive session at a think-tank in Paris, Jaishankar said he was optimistic about resolving the issue through dialogue and that significant headway has been made in many of the friction points.
Two days after the India-China military talks, the joint statement, issued in New Delhi by the Indian Army said both sides had a 'candid and in-depth exchange' relating to disengagement along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Western Sector of India-China border areas.
The Indian side forcefully pressed for early resolution of the standoff and particularly insisted on expeditious disengagement in Hot Springs and Gogra, a source said.
From Eastern Ladakh to Sikkim, new drone units that can carry out missions for up to 48 hours are begin deployed.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is set to hold separate bilateral talks with his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang and Russia's Sergey Lavrov at a beach resort in Goa on Thursday on the sidelines of a conclave of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) amid rapidly evolving regional security situation.
RInstead of disengagement, the Indian and Chinese armies have deployed an estimated 35,000 to 40,000 soldiers each along the LAC. The PLA has deployed S-400 air defence missiles to neutralise the IAF's advantage in air power
China is ready to take "conciliatory steps" in order to avoid new violations of the obligations on the India-Chinese border, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday, a day after holding a crucial meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar over the current standoff in Ladakh. Speaking during a joint press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Wang said troops and equipment should be withdrawn from the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
At a virtual media briefing, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said disengagement of troops is a complex process which would require mutually agreed 'reciprocal actions'.
'I want to assure this House that in these talks we have not conceded anything.' Full text of what Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told Parliament on the Chinese pullback in eastern Ladakh.
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.
'Everytime the Chinese raised the issue of our patrol crossing the line, I told them let's not fight over a line that does not exist yet.' 'Commanders resolved such situations sitting across the table, sometimes we posed veiled threats about creating problems elsewhere along the 800 km frontier as a tit-for-tat.'
The sources said the situation in eastern Ladakh remained 'tense' and that around 30-40 soldiers of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) are holding up at a position close to an Indian post in the Rezang-La ridgeline in eastern Ladakh.
'China doesn't want to settle the boundary dispute because that gives them a reason to pick a fight with India.'
Corps Commander-level meeting between armies of India and China was held in Chushul on Tuesday, to resolve the ongoing dispute over Chinese aggression along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh area, said Indian Army Sources.
The Centre Thursday told the Delhi high court it has set up an appellate mechanism to deal with grievances of the users arising from the decisions of social media platforms.
Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, during a media briefing in Beijing, said that China's position on the border related issues is clear and consistent. "We have been following the important consensus reached by the two leaders and strictly observing the agreements between the two countries," he said, apparently referring to the directions of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi after their two informal summits, asking the militaries of the two countries to take more confidence building measures to maintain peace and tranquillity along the borders.
In an interaction with the commanders at their ongoing biannual conference, Singh reasserted the faith of the billion-plus citizens in the Indian Army as one of the "most trusted and inspiring organisations" in the country.
His attack on the government came days after Indian Army personnel clashed with Chinese soldiers in the Tawang sector in Arunachal Pradesh.
The Army is looking at procuring the LUHs and LCHs to replace its ageing fleets of Cheetah and Chetak helicopters.
In a joint statement, the two armies said it was agreed to earnestly implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries and ensure that the frontline troops exercise restraint and avoid misunderstanding and miscalculation.
The only way to resolve the current military standoff along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh was for Beijing to realise that trying to 'change the status quo by resorting to force or coercion, is not the right way forward', India's ambassador to China Vikram Misri said in a hard-hitting interview to PTI.
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.
'Our biggest advantage is that the troops are much better trained and motivated than the Chinese and can improvise and manage with a part of the resources.'
'India's behaviour violated agreements...It's a serious military provocation'
'We have to be prepared on the borders to withstand Chinese expansionist designs.'
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"Against such background, the words and deeds of relevant important military and government officials and military deployments should be conducive to deescalating and cooling down the situation, and to enhancing mutual trust, rather than the opposite", the spokesman said.
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.
