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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Chinese and Indian troops in Himalayan standoff |
| 2014-09-24 |
| Hundreds of Indian and Chinese troops have dug into positions on a high Himalayan plateau, leading India's army chief to cancel a foreign trip and monitor a standoff that underscores deep differences between the Asian giants as they seek closer ties. Military officials in New Delhi and Kashmir said on Tuesday that Chinese troops set up a camp about 3 km (2 miles) into territory claimed by India in the Chumar region of the Ladakh plateau more than a week ago. Indian soldiers have set up their own base nearby and have been told not to back down, the officials said. Asked about the standoff, China's Ministry of Defence said the two sides' understanding of the line of the border was not the same. "The two countries' border, to this day, has not been designated," the ministry said in a faxed statement, adding that the Chinese military respected pacts signed by both countries. "Both sides, if problems occur in the border area, can reach an appropriate resolution through dialogue and consultation." India has deployed about 1,500 troops in the Chumar area and there are about 800 Chinese soldiers, an Indian government official said. The two sides are not in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation and are well separated from each other, he added. The alleged incursion by Chinese troops into territory claimed by India dominated a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping last week, overshadowing his pledges to invest $20 billion over five years and a bid to warm personal ties with new Prime Minister Narendra Modi. After a summit between Modi and Xi on Friday, the soldiers pulled back from a face-to-face confrontation to take up more distant positions. TRIP CANCELLED India's army chief, General Dalbir Singh, cancelled a three-day visit to neighboring Bhutan on Monday in order to monitor the border situation, a government official in New Delhi said. Military commanders from both sides were due to hold a meeting in the border area on Tuesday, another official said, in a fourth such gathering to try and resolve the dispute. |
| Posted by:3dc |
| #1 The PLA's or PLAA's land-lubber equivalent of the SCS + ECS, i.e. the Senkakus. Or the Crimea, iff Xi was Vlad Putin. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2014-09-24 19:51 |