China is provoking India at every turn says US diplomat
Washington, Mar 3: China is provoking India at every turn just as it is doing with the United States and Washington is committed to accelerating progress in strengthening India's defence capacity to deter Chinese provocations, a senior Biden administration official has told lawmakers.
India's relationship with China is right now going through a very difficult phase after Beijing violated agreements not to bring the military forces to the eastern Ladakh border.
Just as an increasingly provocative China is challenging the United States, it is also provoking India at every turn, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central India, Donald Lu, told members of the Senate Subcommittee on the Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism on Wednesday.
India staged a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympic Games after China selected the regiment commander responsible for the attack on the Indian border that resulted in the death of 20 Indian soldiers in 2020 as an Olympic torchbearer, he said.
Beijing also recently published new China maps reiterating claims to large swaths of territory in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, renaming its cities with new Chinese names.
The border standoff in eastern Ladakh erupted on May 5, 2020, following a violent clash in the Pangong lake area. The face-off escalated after the Galwan Valley clashes on June 15, 2020.
India is engaged in talks with China on the eastern Ladakh border standoff with absolute clarity that it will not agree to any change in the status quo or any attempt to unilaterally alter the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the region.
Lu also told the lawmakers that the US was also working with India on bolstering its defence capabilities.
We remain committed to accelerating progress in our Major Defence Partnership and strengthening India's capacity to deter Chinese provocations, through robust naval cooperation, enhanced information and intelligence sharing, and increased cooperation in emerging domains such as space and cyberspace, Lu said.
Referring to the recent Quad ministerial in Melbourne, Lu said he was struck by how much the Quad is accomplishing and the determination of all Quad partners to support a free and open Indo-Pacific.
Quad is a four-member grouping of the US, India, Australia and Japan that has been formed to further the shared vision of a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific, amidst China's growing assertiveness in the region.
The Quad is making huge strides in achieving the goal of delivering 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the world, Lu said.
The US International Development Finance Corporation provided USD50 million in long-term financing to Biological E Ltd to develop manufacturing capacity to produce at least one billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines by the end of 2022, he said.
We have held discussions via the Quad on critical and emerging technologies and are also cooperating to support clean energy and decarbonization efforts in the Indo-Pacific region, including through green shipping and clean hydrogen initiatives, he added.
The Quad is also working together on maritime cooperation and security. We are sharing data on maritime domain awareness, fighting illegal fishing together, and our four countries have conducted a complex and large-scale naval exercises in the annual Malabar exercise, Lu said.
He refuted the allegations from Senator Ted Cruz that the Biden Administration has deprioritised countering China in the Quad.
I sat in on every session of the Quad discussions, and in every session of those discussions, together with our three Quad partners, we're talking about countering China. We're talking about China countering China with security and defence activities.
"We're also talking about countering China with COVID vaccines as we know that this is part of China's reach into the Indo Pacific. So I take exception to that statement. That is not what I witnessed, Lu said.
In November 2017, the US, Australia, India and Japan gave shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the Quad to develop a new strategy to keep the critical sea routes in the Indo-Pacific free of any influence, amidst China's growing military presence in the strategic region.
China claims nearly all of the disputed South China Sea, though Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam all claim parts of it. Beijing has built artificial islands and military installations in the South China Sea. Beijing is also involved in a maritime dispute with Japan over the East China Sea.
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Notices issued to Himachal conductor, driver for anti-Rahul Gandhi audio clip playing in govt bus
Shimla, Nov 30: After finding itself in soup over a CID enquiry on "missing samosas", the Himachal Pradesh government is again in a tight spot for issuing notices to a state roadways conductor and driver after an audio clip with defamatory remarks against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was allegedly played in their bus.
A man in his complaint to the Chief Minister's Office said defamatory words were used against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and other leaders in an audio clip which was played in the Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) bus plying between Shimla and Sanjauli on November 5.
In a letter to the conductor and driver of the bus on November 25, the HRTC sought explanation from them. The letter went viral on the internet.
Talking to reporters on Friday, HRTC Managing Director Rohan Chand Thakur said a routine complaint was received from a customer after which a fact finding enquiry was initiated. The enquiry was closed as the allegations were found baseless.
However, the wording of the explanation sought could have been better and the officers have been verbally conveyed to improve in the coming times, he added.
The defamatory words were allegedly used in a debate being played in the audio clip.
Reacting sharply to the letter, BJP MLA from Dharamshala, Sudhir Sharma, said the government should appoint marshals to stop audios being played in buses.
"Such decisions of the government are damaging the reputation of the state government as well as the state," he added.
Earlier, the state CID department had ordered an internal enquiry on the samosas which were brought for Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu during a function and by mistake were served to the his security staff. A senior police official had termed the faux pas as an anti-CID and ant-Government act.
