Category: South Asia

Senior Indian and Chinese military commanders are holding talks on Monday aimed at resolving a tense months-long standoff along their disputed border in the mountainous Ladakh region. Details of the talks, held on the Chinese side in the Moldo area facing the Indian-controlled Ladakh region, weren’t immediately disclosed. For the first time, a senior Indian […]

A tunnel nearing completion in the Indian Himalayas will slash by hours the time it takes troops to reach the Chinese border, part of an infrastructure blitz by New Delhi that is gathering pace since a bloody border clash. The nuclear-armed Asian giants blame each other for a brutal high-altitude battle in June that left 20 Indian […]

Indian and Chinese border troops had an exchange of gunfire last week just days before a meeting of their foreign ministers, Indian officials said on Wednesday, in a further breach of a decades-old restraint at the frontier. The two sides have had a long standing agreement for troops not to use firearms at the poorly defined […]

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Wednesday said India was losing credibility at international forums due to its aggressive posturing, Radio Pakistan reported. The foreign minister’s comments come a day after Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval walked out in protest during a speech by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Security Moeed Yusuf at an online […]

Two Indian officials said Chinese troops were laying a network of optical fibre cables at a western Himalayan flashpoint with India, suggesting they were digging in for the long haul despite high-level talks aimed at resolving a standoff there. Such cables, which would provide forward troops with secure lines of communication to bases in the […]

Mantasha Bano was 28 weeks pregnant when her cries of sudden, unbearable pain prompted neighbours to call an ambulance in the rural Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It never came, and Bano’s baby was stillborn. Medical workers in the northern state have reported a marked increase in stillbirths as the coronavirus pandemic strains hard-pressed rural […]

China and India said they had agreed to de-escalate renewed tensions on their contested Himalayan border and take steps to restore “peace and tranquillity” following a high-level diplomatic meeting in Moscow. Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi and Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar met in Moscow on Thursday and reached a five-point consensus, including agreements the […]

HANOI: Washington’s top diplomat urged Southeast Asian countries on Thursday to stand up to “maritime bullying” by China and to reassess business deals with its state firms, adding to heated exchanges between two powers jostling for influence. Speaking remotely to foreign ministers of the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean), Secretary of State […]