In separate statements, the Chinese foreign and the defence ministries, however, repeated Beijing's stand that India was responsible for the June 15 violent face-off in eastern Ladakh. Defence Ministry Spokesman Col Wu Qian said the two defence ministers are negotiating on the phone.
India and Italy inked 15 pacts and finalised an ambitious action plan to further expand their ties following a virtual summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Giuseppe Conte that primarily focused on ramping up economic engagement.
Criticising the Indian media and opposition parties for "creating trouble" for Sino-India ties, an official daily in Beijing on Thursday blamed New Delhi for "maintaining silence and ambiguity" over "provocative" reports of intrusion by Chinese troops into Despang valley in Ladakh.
India's decision to heed to Australia's request to be part of the mega naval drill comes in the midst of growing strain in ties with China over the border row in eastern Ladakh.
Shringla said that diplomacy is looking at a very changed scenario in terms of how statecraft and relations between countries work in the wake of the pandemic.
Fifty years after a war across their high Himalayan frontier left decades of bitterness, the Chinese media, echoing the establishment's thinking, on Saturday struck a positive note, declaring India and China had come a long way to establish a "comprehensive strategic partnership".
While OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro were launched in April, the devices were not brought into the Indian market given the lockdown.
Terming Sino-India ties as one of the most important bilateral relationships for China, the People's Liberation Army on Tuesday said that it wants to build "new type" of military relations with Indian defence forces to promote peace and stability at the borders and in South Asia.
In the first high-level Sino-India contact since the once-in-a-decade leadership change in the ruling Communist Party of China, National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon arrived in Beijing on Sunday for wide-ranging talks on bilateral ties, including the vexed border issue.
'The unfortunate truth is that China, having exploited the initiative to seize pieces of India's claimed territory, can now hold on to its new acquisitions forever unless India chooses to eject Chinese troops by force or decides to impose tit-for-tat costs on China by symmetrically occupying other pockets in disputed territory where it possesses a tactical advantage'
Gandhi said he has "received tremendous love and affection from people of Tamil Nadu and it is my duty to stand with people of Tamil Nadu and protect their history, their culture and their language."
Some Indians "still worry" that sometime in the future, China, with increasing military power, may "retake the land that it recovered but later gave to India five decades ago," the Global Times said, referring to different write-ups in the Indian media on the eve of the anniversary of the war on October 20.
India looks forward to the meet between Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Chinese premier Xi Jinping's in Durban on March 27 on the sidelines of the BRICS summit. The next week is important for Sino- India bilateral relations, says Sheela Bhatt.
The two sides have already held 21 rounds of talks under the framework of SR dialogue which was set up to find an early solution to the border dispute.
In an address at the Raisina Dialogue, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar took strong objection to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor which passes through Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir, saying there should have been some reflection on India's unhappiness over it.
Giving thrust to bilateral confidence building measures on the Sino-India border, a delegation of Chinese army on Wednesday joined their Indian counterparts in celebrating India's Independence Day at the border post in Nathu La.
The Indian delegation, comprising several officers and soldiers of the army, attended the celebration following an invitation by the PLA.
"There have been 2-3 air violations. It happened in May and June this year. Three places they had flown. But they are at higher altitude and it is difficult to determine how inside they had come," ITBP Inspector General, M S Bhurji said at the annual conference of the about 77,000-men strong force.
Xi will attend the second informal meeting with Modi at Mahabalipuram near Chennai from October 11 to 12 and pay a state visit to Nepal on October 13, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying announced on Wednesday.
The strategic alliance between China and Pakistan is primarily driven by their rivalry with India, eminent US experts have said, with one of them expressing concern over Sino-India border tensions.
Blaming India and its multi-party political system for the delay in solving the vexed Sino-India border issue, Chinese state media on Wednesday said the two sides were "far away" from reaching a "fair" agreement due to "suspicion and distrust", which is also impeding progress in bilateral ties.
Minister of State for Home Mullappally Ramachandran said there were 228 cases of transgression of the Indo-China border by the People's Liberation Army in 2010, 213 cases in 2011, and 64 cases till April 2012
A wide range of bilateral and global issues, including trade and developments relating to Syria and Iran, are likely to figure in talks External Affairs Minister S M Krishna will have with top Chinese leaders during his visit here to inaugurate the new USD 10 million Indian embassy building.
Singh also said that Indian security forces were capable of defending the country's territories.
Indian companies in China plan to ramp up their investment and increase headcount by five times in next two to three years, once Beijing relaxes rules on foreign investors and operators, an expert on Sino-India commerce and trade legalities said on Thursday.
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.
Answering questions on the clashes near Naku La Pass in the Sikkim sector which resulted in injuries to both sides, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said that the most pressing issue for the world at present is the fight against the coronavirus.
The sources also said another round of military talks between the two sides on Wednesday to defuse tensions in the area remained inconclusive. The talks lasted nearly seven hours.
The identity of the missing pilots has not been disclosed and the worst is feared.
China must start taking an of late "pushy" India seriously as it has strategically placed itself in the United States-China face-off to gain maximum benefits, a leading official newspaper has said.
The Army says such a move will seriously jeopardise surveillance over the country's sensitive border with China.
It is learnt that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has conveyed to top military brass that there was no need for reviewing the implementation of any of the key projects along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand or in Arunachal Pradesh in view of the aggressive behaviour by Chinese troops in several sensitive areas.
Indian and Chinese troops remained engaged in an eyeball-to-eyeball situation in several disputed areas.
Four army personnel were killed in a Dhruv helicopter crash in north Sikkim near the Sino-India border, days after a Pawan Hans chopper went down in the northeast claiming 17 lives.
The Bharatiya Janata Party fielded party strongman Narendra Modi to make a scathing attack on the central government on Thursday over its handling of internal security and accused it of failing to take the party into confidence on issues like talks with Pakistan and Sino-India ties.
Asked whether India offered something to China for Azhar's listing, he asserted that India doesn't negotiate on matters related to national security. "Our objective was to ensure designation of Masood Azhar as global terrorist," he said.
Apparently concerned over repeated incursions by Chinese troops, National Security Advisor M K Narayanan has convened a meeting of top officials including Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar and Secretaries of Defence, Home and Foreign Ministries.
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.
According to experts, this will have major impact on new investments by Chinese players in companies, such as Paytm, Ola, BigBasket, Byju's, Dream11, MakeMyTrip, and Swiggy, when they go for follow-up funding. Chinese investors, such as Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi, are active in the Indian start-up space, and have collectively invested billions of dollars.
China on Tuesday dismissed fresh reports of incursions by its troops into Indian territory, saying it was committed to solving the vexed boundary issue through talks and would like to make joint efforts with India to maintain peace along the border.