A powerful Senate committee has overwhelmingly approved the key China strategic competition bill which among other things supports the QUAD grouping and enhances security partnership with India.
Known as the “Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, the Quad grouping comprises the US, India, Australia and Japan. The representatives for the four-member nations have met periodically since its establishment in 2007. The top leaders of the four countries held a historic virtual summit hosted by President Joe Biden last month.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, following a three hour debate and several amendments voted 21-1 to approve the Strategic Competition Act on Wednesday.
The United States should reaffirm its commitment to the Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership with India and further deepen bilateral defence consultations and collaboration with the country, says the bipartisan bill moved by Senators Jim Risch and Bob Menendez, ranking member and chairman of the Senate Fore
Over 4.40 lakh foreign students from various parts of the world study in China. This included about 25,000 Indian students, mostly studying medicine in various Chinese medical colleges.
Citing COVID-19 restrictions, China has been advising the students to continue with the online classes. The students, however, said that with the majority of them studying science subjects they need access to laboratories.
Asked whether China s stand that it is to discuss with other countries on establishing mutual recognition mechanisms for health codes information on the basis of accommodating each other s concerns would be applicable to the return of the students, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told media briefing here on Tuesday that China s COVID-19 international health certificate issued on Monday is applicable to Chinese only.
(This story originally appeared in on Mar 08, 2021)As India seeks early troop disengagement in remaining areas in Ladakh after Pangong Tso, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi on Sunday reiterated Beijing’s position that the border issue was not the “whole story” of the bilateral relationship and the two countries need to create “enabling conditions” to resolve the dispute and move on.
Speaking at his annual press conference, while he said India and China were partners and not rivals, Wang again blamed India for the border flare-up last year and called for the countries to manage disputes properly.
Responding to a query on ties with India, Wang claimed the “rights and wrongs” of what happened at the border were clear and “so are the stakes involved”, suggesting the two sides move on. In his recent interaction with Wang, foreign minister S Jaishankar had, however, made the point that ties could not be reset as long as there were tensions on the border caused by agg
Early last summer, Chinese and Indian armies clashed in a surprise border battle in the remote Galwan Valley, bashing each other to death with rocks and clubs.
Four months later and more than 1,500 miles away in Mumbai, rains shut down and the stock market closed as the power went out in a city of 20 million people. Hospitals had to switch to emergency generators to keep ventilators running amid a coronavirus outbreak that was among India’s worst.
Now, a new study lends weight to the idea that those two events may have been connected as part of a broad Chinese cyber campaign against India’s power grid, timed to send a message that if India pressed its claims too hard, the lights could go out across the country.
(This story originally appeared in on Mar 01, 2021)The Indian Army is firmly pushing for mountaineering expeditions as well as research studies to publicise and consolidate India’s legitimate territorial claims in areas along the northern borders to counter the salami-slicing tactics of an expansionist China.
For starters, the Army is launching a major skiing expedition from the crucial Karakoram Pass in Ladakh to Lipulekh Pass in Uttarakhand, which will cover a distance of around 1,500km after being flagged off on March 3.
“China’s blatantly expansionist policy to grab territory needs to be effectively countered. While the Army rebalances with additional forces and firepower to the northern borders, it’s also essential to show and mark our presence in ‘unheld’ areas through mountaineering and other expeditions there,” said a senior officer.