China’s military build-up at disputed border worries India, foreign minister says

Name: Who has the upper hand in the India-China border dispute?
Uploaded: 2021-06-23T04:18:38.000Z
Duration: 6 min 15 s
Description: Who has the upper hand in the India-China border dispute?

Uncertainty over whether Beijing will fulfil its promise on troop reductions remains a challenge for relations, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said

His comments come a year after 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops were killed in the bloodiest border clashes in more than four decades

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An Indian soldier guards a highway leading to the Ladakh region, where India’s foreign minister said China’s ‘close-up deployment still continues’. Photo: Sopa Images via Zuma Wire/DPA

Bloomberg

Published: 12:18pm, 23 Jun 2021Updated: 10:25pm, 23 Jun 2021

China’s military deployment along its disputed Himalayan border with India and uncertainty over whether Beijing will fulfil its promise on troop reductions remains a challenge for relations between the two neighbours, India’s foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said.

“The issue there is whether China would live up to the commitments it has made – written commitments it has made – about both countries not allowing a large armed force at the border,” Jaishankar said in an interview at the Qatar Economic Forum on Tuesday. China’s “close-up deployment still continues, especially in Ladakh.”

His comments come a year after 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops were killed in the bloodiest clashes between the two sides in more than four decades.

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Who has the upper hand in the India-China border dispute?

Since the flare-up with China, which coincided with the coronavirus pandemic, India has strengthened its partnership with the Quad – an informal grouping which includes the US, Australia and Japan.

Jaishankar, who attended the Group of Seven meeting in Britain this month, said New Delhi shares its concern on building reliable supply chains and can contribute by ramping up its own manufacturing capacities.

India has also sought support from the United States and Europe to boost its vaccine production, the minister said. The world’s biggest producer of vaccines exported or gifted shots to more than 90 countries initially, but halted that in April amid a spike in infections and a shortage of inoculations for its own citizens.

India’s decision has also hurt supplies to the World Health Organization-backed Covax Facility, an initiative set up to purchase shots for low- and middle-income countries.