Trump-Modi discusses India-China border issues

GBNEWS24 DESK//

The border tension between India and China figured among a range of important issues that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump discussed during a 25-minute phone conversation today, the government said in a statement.

The statement did not give specifics of what the two leaders discussed about the standoff between the militaries of India and China near eastern Ladakh.

Mr Trump claimed last week that he offered to mediate between India and China. However, top government sources had contradicted the claim, asserting that there had been no recent interaction between the two leaders. China also rejected Mr Trump’s offer, citing the two neighbours are capable of properly resolving the issues through dialogue and consultation.

The US on Monday had said it was “extremely concerned” by the Chinese aggression against India along the Line of Actual Control. “I strongly urge China to respect norms and use diplomacy and existing mechanisms to resolve its border questions with India,” said Elliot Engel, chief of the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.

India has said the Chinese military was hindering normal patrolling by its troops along the Line of Actual Control or LAC in Ladakh and Sikkim, and strongly refuted Beijing’s contention that the escalating tension between the two armies was triggered by trespassing of Indian forces across the Chinese side.

The standoff is the most serious since India and China, who fought a brief war in 1962, were locked in a similar faceoff in Doklam, in the eastern Himalayas, that lasted nearly three months in 2017.