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Qionglin New Village sits deep in the Himalayas, just three miles from a region where a heavy military buildup and confrontations between Chinese and Indian troops have brought fears of a border war. The land was once an empty valley, more than 10,000 feet above the sea, traversed only by local hunters. Then Chinese officials built Qionglin, a village of cookie-cutter homes and finely paved roads, and paid people to move there from other settlements. China’s leader, Xi Jinping, calls such people “border guardians.” Qionglin’s villagers are essentially sentries on the front line of China’s claim to Arunachal Pradesh, India’s...

India and the US wanted Jaish-e-Mohammed deputy chief Abdul Rauf Azhar to be designated as a ‘global terrorist’ A month after Beijing shielded Pakistan-based deputy leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) Abdul Rehman Makki, an international terrorist, it has done an encore. It has vetoed a similar joint proposal at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), again by India and the US, to designate Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) deputy chief Abdul Rauf Azhar as a “global terrorist.” He is the younger brother of JeM founder Maulana Masood Azhar, another murderous jihadist. India was understandably incensed at China, castigating it for its “double speak” and...

In his recent visit to the Ladakh sector, Army chief Gen Manoj Pande reviewed the security situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in view of the Chinese threat for which the Indian Army has shifted six Divisions which were earlier deployed in counter-terrorism roles and after taking care of Pakistan front. The military standoff with China has been going on for over two years now when the Chinese side attempted to change the status quo unilaterally by moving troops in large numbers against Indian positions. The Indian Army has been doing rebalancing and realignment of its forces which...

With the world focused on the war in Ukraine, China has been busy engaging in diplomacy with neighboring countries, especially in South Asia. During the last 10 days of March, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Nepal; attended the Council of Foreign Ministers meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation; and hosted a series of international conferences on Afghanistan. Wang’s trip to India is particularly noteworthy. Memories of bloodshed in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley, where Chinese and Indian soldiers clashed in mid-2020, killing dozens, are still fresh. Given this, the high-profile visit by Wang inevitably leads many...

the post-COVID order, the US alone may be unable to guarantee international peace and security, and India and Australia have to step in The inaugural Australia India 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue between the Australian Defence Minister Peter Dutton, Foreign Minister Marise Payne and their Indian counterparts Rajnath Singh and S Jaishankar was held when the constellation of bilateral and strategic determinants could not have been more favourably placed. Bilateral ties, elevated to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in June 2020, have reached a historical high, emerged as an important cog in the rapidly evolving world hierarchy, as Jaishankar once argued. New Delhi and...

In a significant strategic step, the Indian Army has deployed specialised elements of a Strike Corps in eastern Ladakh to check any further misadventure by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA). The soldiers of these specialized elements have started their reorientation training and familiarization. The move is seen as a part of the Army's 'rebalance' approach in northern, western and northeastern borders. As per a report in The Print, several new Strike Corps elements have arrived in Ladakh, which includes artillery units with specialised firepower, armoured and mechanised columns, and infantry. "This is part of the re-orientation training. This is...

CHINA and India have held their ninth round of military commander-level talks in a bid to ease border tensions between the two nations. Tens of thousands of troops on both sides are currently stationed in freezing temperatures around the region of Ladakh in a bitter standoff that has lasted for months. Tensions in the area flared last year after a clash between groups of Indian and Chinese troops left at least 20 soldiers dead in June. While both sides have placed air and land defences along the boundary that separates them, they have also engaged in peace talks. Now, Indian...

AIPEI (Taiwan News) — As tensions continue to simmer on the Sino-Indian border, a video surfaced on Sunday (Sept. 20) showing People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers crying as they are allegedly deployed to the border. On Sunday, Pakistani comedian Zaid Hamid uploaded a video showing several PLA recruits crying on a bus as they are allegedly "transferred to Ladakh Border to face Indian Army [sic]." Hamid then wrote that China's one-child policy is "seriously hurting the motivation level of our Chinese brothers." He then added, "We Pakistani support you China. Stay Brave." Although Pakistan is an ally of China, Hamid...

China and India have accused each other of firing shots on their flashpoint Himalayan border in a further escalation of military tension between the nuclear-armed Asian rivals. The relationship between the two countries has deteriorated since a hand-to-hand combat clash in the Ladakh region on June 15 in which 20 Indian troops were killed. Experts fear the latest incident will intensify a months-long standoff between the Asian giants that erupted in late April. Beijing's defence ministry accused India of "severe military provocation", saying soldiers crossed the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the western border region on Monday and "opened...

India banned 118 more mostly Chinese apps on Wednesday, a move that could intensify simmering tensions between the two countries following a recent deadly skirmish at a disputed Himalayan border site, and raising concerns about the longer-term impact of $82 billion of trade. The latest apps include Tencent Holdings Ltd's popular videogame PUBG. India imported $65.3 billion worth of goods from China in the fiscal year ended March 2020, and exported $16.6 billion, according to the country's Commerce ministry... India has also been planning to impose higher trade barriers and raise import duties on around 300 products from China and...

Washington aims to formalise its closer Indo-Pacific defence relations with India, Japan and Australia – also known as “the quad” – into something more closely resembling the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), a senior US State Department official said on Monday. The US government’s goal is to get the grouping of four countries and others in the region to work together as a bulwark against “a potential challenge from China” and “to create a critical mass around shared values and interests of those parties in a manner that attracts more countries in the Indo-Pacific and even from around the world...

China has vowed retaliation and India has bolstered its defenses amid a new flare-up in border tensions that saw both sides accuse the other of attempting to cross their disputed boundary in the Himalayan highlands. In the latest episode to emerge from an ongoing standoff that erupted in May and turned deadly the following month, the Chinese People's Liberation Army and Indian Armed Forces charged one other Monday with trying to redraw the contested Line of Actual Control between India-administered Ladakh and China-administered Aksai Chin. The details of the incident remain difficult to discern, but heated rhetoric from the two...

SRINAGAR, India—India said Monday its soldiers thwarted “provocative” movements by China’s military near a disputed border in the Ladakh region months into the rival nations’ deadliest standoff in decades.Local military commanders from the two countries were meeting along the disputed frontier on Monday to resolve the issues, India’s defense ministry said. It said India was committed to dialogue “but is also equally determined to protect its territorial integrity.”The statement said China’s People’s Liberation Army on Saturday night “carried out provocative military movements to change the status quo” and “violated the previous consensus arrived at during military and diplomatic engagements”...

NEW DELHI: The photograph of a 19-year-old Chinese soldier’s gravestone, circulating on the country’s social media, could be evidence of Chinese casualties in the Galwan Valley clash .. ........ The inscription on the gravestone, in Mandarin, says, “Tomb of martyr Chen Xiangrong, soldier of the Unit 69316 of the Southern Xinjiang Military District of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army 13th Regiment.Born in December 2001, from Pingnan county, Fujian province China. Sacrificed in the fight against India’s border defence in June 2020.”

Acting swiftly after the Galwan valley clash on June 15 in Eastern Ladakh, the Indian Navy sailed out its frontline warship for deployment in the South China Sea much to the displeasure of the Chinese who raised objections over the move during the talks between the two sides. The Chinese have been objecting to the presence of Indian Navy ships in the region where it has significantly expanded its presence since 2009 through artificial islands and military presence. "Soon after the Galwan clash broke out in which 20 of our soldiers were killed, the Indian Navy deployed one of its...

India has recently renewed its attention to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean, which occupy a key location in West-East maritime trade, with a series of infrastructure, economic, and defense projects that experts say will help India and its Indo-Pacific allies.The country is upgrading two airstrips on the islands into full-fledged fighter aircraft bases, according to Aug. 25 media reports, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has begun other development projects in the past few weeks.“The Andaman and Nicobar Islands provide critical access and key entry and exit points for the Indian Ocean. They oversee the Strait...

A military option to deal with transgressions by the Chinese Army in Ladakh is on the table, India's Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat has said, while adding that it will be exercised only if talks between the two armies and the diplomatic option fail. CDS General Bipin Rawat told India Today that transgressions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) occur due to differing perceptions about its alignment. "The military option to deal with the transgressions by the Chinese is still on but will be considered only if the talks at the diplomatic and military level fail,"...

India’s Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat has explicitly stated that a military option to deal with transgressions by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in Ladakh is on the table, but will be exercised only if talks between the two armies and the diplomatic option are unfruitful. “Transgressions along the LAC occur due to differing perceptions about its alignment. Defence services are tasked to monitor and carry out surveillance and prevent such transgressions turning into intrusions. Whole of government approach is adopted to peacefully resolve any such activity and prevent intrusions. Defence services always remain prepared for military actions...

India is preparing to position an additional 35,000 troops along its disputed Himalayan border with China as the possibility of an early resolution to the deadly tensions between the two neighbours fades. The move would change the status quo along the contested 3,488 km Line of Actual Control and stretch the nations already tight military budget, senior Indian officials said, asking not to be identified citing rules on speaking to the media. Twenty Indian soldiers and unknown number of Chinese troops were killed in an ugly skirmish on June 15 and since then, both sides have rushed thousands of soldiers,...

Many Indians thought former BBC journalist Humphrey Hawksley was being overly alarmist when he wrote the thriller Dragon Fire two decades ago about a war pitting China and Pakistan against India that ended apocalyptically with nuclear devastation. Hawksley, a veteran Asia hand, said his fiction was meant not just to entertain but also be a warning that China was expansionist and was a one-party state whose government had to prove itself to survive. Since then, though, we’ve seen China offering a different narrative in which global economic diplomacy was its choice weapon. The Chinese have been busy proving they’re responsible...