India-China face-off live updates: India, China have come to blows and we are trying to help them out, says Trump

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh personally called and invited all leaders on behalf of PM yesterday.

Indian soldiers patrolling in the forward areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China do carry assault rifles and firearms but when a team goes ahead to confront or talk to PLA troops, they are usually unarmed or have their weapons concealed or slung on their backs. This, in short, is the standard operating procedure (SOP) followed by Indian troops, who are also under strict instructions to never open fire in accordance with the flurry of border management agreements inked with China over the years. The 1996 agreement, for instance, lays down that “neither side shall open fire or conduct blast operations within 2 km of the LAC”. Read more

Amid the Indo-China border standoff, the Ram Mandir trust has put on hold its plan to begin the construction of the temple in Ayodhya. The decision comes days after a violent face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh left 20 Indian Army personnel dead. Expressing concern over the killing of Indian soldiers, the trust which has been charged with the construction of the temple after the historic Supreme Court verdict last year, said a new date will be decided soon.

India and China are slated to hold another round of talks at the Major General-level in the Galwan Valley region of eastern Ladakh on Friday after the 10 Indian soldiers held captive by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) were released on Thursday evening. The talks between Leh-based 3 Infantry Division commander Major General Abhijit Bapat and his PLA counterpart on Thursday had led to the release of the 10 soldiers, including four officers, who were taken captive during the bloody skirmish in the area on June 15. Read more

The death of scores of Indian and Chinese soldiers at Galwan in eastern Ladakh this week on the disputed border between the two countries, have led many to ask the questions — What is it that China wants? Where does it see itself going? What is this China Dream that they keep talking about? Read more

Indian soldiers patrolling in the forward areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China do carry assault rifles and firearms but when a team goes ahead to confront or talk to PLA troops, they are usually unarmed or have their weapons concealed or slung on their backs. This, in short, is the standard operating procedure (SOP) followed by Indian troops, who are also under strict instructions to never open fire in accordance with the flurry of border management agreements inked with China over the years. The 1996 agreement, for instance, lays down that “neither side shall open fire or conduct blast operations within 2 km of the LAC”. Read more

The Army, which is at present seeing eye-ball to eye-ball with Chinese troops in Ladakh, has put at least 45 key items, including different types of ammunition, warm clothing meant for troops deployed in areas like Ladakh, man-landing parachutes among other things, on a critical list. The army, through the department of defence production (DDP), has asked the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) to ensure supply of these items on priority at a time more than 80,000 employees have threatened an indefinite strike in July. Read more

For the sake of grabbing territory, the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) of China appears to have instigated the most violent clash between the two Asian giants, a top American Senator said on Thursday. “On land, for the sake of grabbing territory, the PLA appears to have instigated the most violent clash between China and India since those nations went to war in 1962,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a major foreign policy speech on the floor of the House. Read more

The all-party meeting, called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the situation at the border areas with China, is scheduled to be held on Friday at 5 pm. "In order to discuss the situation in the India-China border areas, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for an all-party meeting at 5 pm on June 19. Presidents of various political parties would take part in this virtual meeting," PMO had tweeted. The meeting was called after at least 20 Indian Army personnel, including a Colonel rank officer, had lost their lives in the violent face-off with Chinese troops in the Galwan valley area of Ladakh on June 15. India had said that the violent face-off happened in Ladakh's Galwan Valley as a result of an attempt by the Chinese troops to "unilaterally change" the status quo during de-escalation in Eastern Ladakh and the situation could have been avoided if the agreement at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side. Read more

China on Thursday remained evasive about the number of casualties suffered by it in the Galwan valley clash and also on the role of its troops. It didn't respond to queries on reports that it was building a dam on the Galwan river on the border to obstruct its flow. Asked about allegations that Indian soldiers were brutally attacked with iron rods and spikes by Chinese soldiers, foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian reiterated China's allegation, squarely blaming Indian troops for the incident. “The right and wrong of this case is very clear and responsibility doesn't lie with the Chinese side,” he said. Read more

The government on Thursday indicated a hardening of resolve to deploy economic measures to retaliate against China for transgressions in Ladakh by scrapping a Rs 471-crore contract given to a Chinese company for a World Bank-funded railway project, without waiting for the multilateral lending agency’s nod. DFCCIL (Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd), an entity under the ministry, on Thursday decided to terminate the contract with Beijing National Railway Research & Design Institute of Signal & Communication for installing signals and communications system in the 417-km Kanpur-Deen Dayal Upadhyay Jn section of the eastern freight corridor. Read more