India asks Russia to speed up delivery of missile system, jets amid China border tensions

Name: India and China attempt to de-escalate border tension after deaths
Uploaded: 2020-06-23T07:58:57.000Z
Duration: 2 min 13 s
Description: India and China attempt to de-escalate border tension after deaths

China and India’s foreign ministers met on Tuesday in their first face-to-face interaction since last week’s deadly border clashes

Meanwhile, India’s defence minister was in Moscow to push Russia to speed up the sale of the S-400 missile defence system

Reading Time:3 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

The Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missile defence systems ride through Moscow’s Red Square during the Victory Day military parade in 2017. Photo: AFP

Bloomberg

Published: 3:58pm, 23 Jun 2020Updated: 8:56pm, 23 Jun 2020

India is pushing Russia to speed up the sale of a missile defence system and fighter jets amid worsening ties with China following the worst military face off between the Asian nations in four decades.

The request comes as China and India’s foreign ministers were set to meet on Tuesday in their first face-to-face interaction since last week’s deadly clashes along their disputed Himalayan border, in which 20 Indian soldiers died, along with an unknown number of Chinese casualties. India and China agreed to de-escalate the situation along their undemarcated boundary, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a regular news briefing on Tuesday in Beijing.

Last week’s clashes – along with revelations that China held 10 Indian soldiers in military custody for days afterward before releasing them – came amid rising nationalism stoked by both governments as they jostle for regional influence. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen for an early resolution of the border dispute as he risks a drop in popularity if the army suffers more losses.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hosted the virtual trilateral meeting with China’s Wang Yi and India’s Subrahmanyam Jaishankar after Moscow emerged as a key player in thawing relations between the two neighbours. “India and China have every means to solve any problems that arise in their relationship,” Lavrov said after the meeting. “I don’t think that India and China need any help.”

02:13

India and China attempt to de-escalate border tension after deaths

Zhao, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, said that after talks between the top regional military commanders on Monday, both sides had “agreed to take necessary measures to promote a cooling of the situation”.