Monthly Archives: August 2018

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 1

The military stalemate on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) continued even as the US backed India and the Chinese Foreign Office reiterated that the situation in the border areas was “stable and under control.”

Sources said the military-level talks at the two designated points in eastern Ladakh had not yielded results and postures had hardened with troops mandated to hold ground.

Both sides kept under wraps diplomatic negotiations to resolve the standoff that emerged after Chinese troops reacted to efforts to modernise military infrastructure on the Indian side of the LAC.

In Beijing, the Chinese Foreign Office said the two countries were capable of resolving border issues through dialogue and negotiations at the military and diplomatic levels. Both India and China have said they are committed to safeguarding national security along the LAC.

Sources said the Indian troops had been forward-deployed with food and sleeping bags to hold ground in the Galwan valley and the north of Pangong Tso. The Chinese have stopped the Indian troops 5 km short of the earlier accepted patrol point in the valley. At Pangong Tso, China is trying to push Indian troops back to ‘Finger 2’ from ‘Finger 4’, a distance of over 10 km.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cited the Sino-India border standoff to assert the Chinese military advances were for real. The US could be good partners with India, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Brazil and Europe, he said.

New Delhi, June 1

The government on Monday withdrew a list of over 1,000 non-‘swadeshi’ products to be banned from sale at Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) canteens barely a couple of hours after it was circulated as several items in it were made in India.

Stating that action is being initiated for the “lapse”, Union Home Ministry officials said there were discrepancies in the list issued by the Kendriya Police Kalyan Bhandar (central police welfare stores) and a new one would be issued after due diligence.

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), which manages the board of the CAPF canteens, said the list was issued “erroneously”.

“This is clarified that the list issued by Kendriya Police Kalyan Bhandar on May 29 regarding de-listing of certain products has been erroneously issued at the level of CEO.” “The list has been withdrawn and action is being initiated for the lapse,” a statement issued in the name of the CRPF director general said.

The CRPF chief is the chairman of the welfare and rehabilitation board that looks after the network of canteens. —PTI

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 1

India is making a last-ditch effort to persuade Nepal not to push ahead with a Constitutional amendment that will formalise the inclusion of territory claimed by India in its political map.

Nepal has already issued a revised political map but a Constitutional amendment, if passed by its Parliament, will give finality to the process and allow the new contours of the border to be incorporated in its coat of arms.

Read also: Nepal’s map move

About the dispute

Nepal government has tabled a Bill to approve a new map which shows Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura-which also feature on India’s map-as part of its territory. India has rejected the map, calling the revision “unilateral” and “not based on historical facts and evidences”.

Sources said India has attempted to convey to Nepal that it is ready for talks with the tactical aim of delaying the parliamentary procedure. The new offer, conveyed through former security and diplomatic officials, is a revision of the old offer to hold Foreign Secretary-level talks after the Covid epidemic is over. The old offer of holding talks after the epidemic had riled the Nepalese political class and led to hardening of stance. Kathmandu had argued that talks could also be held during the pandemic if Defence Minister Rajnath Singh could inaugurate a road running through disputed areas while Covid was raging.

While the Indian side has not officially acknowledged the feelers sent out to Nepal, its Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali said Kathmandu is in constant touch with New Delhi. “The date and modality of informal talks are not fixed yet, but we are in constant touch with the Indian side… We want to resolve the issue through diplomatic means,’’ he was reported as having briefed Nepal’s parliamentary committee on foreign affairs.

The last-minute Indian attempt is the same tactics of 2015 when S Jaishankar, then the Foreign Secretary, had landed in Kathmandu to block major legislative changes that had upset Madhesis living in the plains bordering India. By the time Jaishankar landed, the die had been cast and Nepal did not heed the Foreign Secretary’s call, leading to an unacknowledged economic blockade.

TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

SRINAGAR, JUNE 2

One militant has been killed in an ongoing operation in Pulwama district of south Kashmir early Tuesday morning.

Officials said a gun fight between security and militants has broken out in Sainmoh village. According to army, one militant has been killed in joint operation even as the gunfight was still on.

Militants were given a chance to surrender. Announcements were made for them to surrender but militants opened fire resulting in the gunfight. Recently, security forces had successfully managed to thwart a suicide attack in the district with the detection of an explosive-fitted car.

Washington, June 2

Terming China a “bully”, a top American lawmaker has voiced concern over the “Chinese aggression” against India, urging Beijing to “respect norms” and use diplomacy and existing mechanisms to resolve its border standoff with New Delhi.

“I am extremely concerned by the ongoing Chinese aggression along the Line of Actual Control on the India-China border,” said Congressman Eliot Engel, Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Also read: Chinese forces moved up to north of India along LAC, says Mike Pompeo

“China is demonstrating once again that it is willing to bully its neighbours rather than resolve conflicts according to international law,” he said.

Engel’s comments have come in the backdrop of the continuing standoff between the militaries of India and China at the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

“Countries must all abide by the same set of rules so that we don’t live in a world where ‘might makes right’. I strongly urge China to respect norms and use diplomacy and existing mechanisms to resolve its border questions with India,” Engel said in a statement.

The statement comes a day after China said that the overall situation at the border with India was “stable and controllable”, and both the countries have “unimpeded” communication channels to resolve the issues through dialogue and consultations.

“China has been implementing the consensus between the two countries’ leaders. We have been committed to upholding our national sovereignty, security as well as stability along the border”.

“Now the overall situation in our border areas is stable and controllable. We have unimpeded communication channels and we hope and believe through dialogue and consultations we can properly resolve the relevant issue,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters in Beijing.

He was responding to a question on Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s remarks that India will not let its “pride be hurt” in its latest border flare-up with China but is determined to settle the dispute through talks between the giant neighbours.

“I want to assure the country that we will not let India’s pride be hurt in any circumstances,” Singh said in an interview to a news channel on Sunday.

India on Wednesday said it was engaged with China to peacefully resolve the border row.

“We are engaged with the Chinese side to peacefully resolve it,” External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said, replying to questions at an online media briefing.

Both India and China have rejected US President Donald Trump’s offer to mediate to settle the current standoff between the militaries of the two countries.

“The two sides have established mechanisms both at military and diplomatic levels to resolve situations which may arise in border areas peacefully through dialogue and continue to remain engaged through these channels,” Srivastava said.

Troops of India and China were engaged in a major standoff for over three weeks in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh, in what is turning out to be the biggest confrontation between the two countries after the Doklam episode in 2017.

The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet while India contests it.

Both sides have been asserting that pending the final resolution of the boundary issue, it is necessary to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas. PTI

Washington, June 2

China has moved up its forces along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday, asserting that authoritarian regimes take these kinds of actions.

Several areas along the LAC in Ladakh and North Sikkim have witnessed major military build-up by both the Indian and Chinese armies recently, in a clear signal of escalating tension and hardening of respective positions by the two sides even two weeks after they were engaged in two separate face-offs.

Also read: Top US lawmaker slams ‘Chinese aggression’ against India, urges Beijing to ‘respect norms’

“We see even today increasing forces of China moved up to the north of India on the Line of Actual Control there on the Indian border,” Pompeo told Marc Thiessen and Danielle Pletka of AEI’s ‘What The Hell Is Going On’ Podcast.

The Communist Party of China (CPC) continues to hide and obfuscate and delay the global response to the coronavirus pandemic that began in Wuhan. It has taken actions destroying the amazing freedoms of the people of Hong Kong, he said.

“Those are just two pieces of the behaviour of this regime of the Chinese Communist Party. The nature and the activity that they’re undertaking, the continued efforts to steal intellectual property, to advance in the South China Sea,” he said.

Pompeo said that these are the kinds of actions that authoritarian regimes take, and they have a real impact not only on the Chinese people there in China and Hong Kongers in Hong Kong, but a real impact on people all around the world.

“The United States has a responsibility and the capability to push back against that, ensure that the American people are properly served by a foreign policy that recognises the threats that emanate from China today,” he said.

Responding to a question, Pompeo said that the recent Chinese actions be it on the India border, or Hong Kong or the South China Sea, have been part of the Chinese behaviour in the recent past.

“It’s not just over the past six months. We’ve seen over the past number of years continued Chinese build out of their military capabilities, and then continually more aggressive action. I mentioned India. You’ve mentioned the South China Sea.

“We see this same kind of things with them attempting to build ports around the world as part of their Belt and Road Initiative, places where they can move the People’s Liberation Army Navy. We’ve seen their continued efforts to expand militarily,” Pompeo said.

For the past 20 years, the US has not responded to these things in a real way, he said.

“We’ve viewed the 1.5 billion people in the Chinese market as so important to the American economy, and the risk that the Chinese would respond by closing us out for the favour of some other nation – I think people have just been too worried about that to actually take the responses that we take to every other country that behaves in the way that China has done,” Pompeo said.

President Donald Trump has not done that, he asserted.

“Trump’s made it very clear whether it’s the signature issue on trade… reciprocal trade… and now beginning to move to all the other elements of power that the Chinese Communist Party is trying to expand,” he added. PTI