Donald
Trump: "We have informed both India and China that the United States is
ready, willing and able to mediate or arbitrate their now raging border
dispute. Thank you!," Trump tweeted.
Donald Trump
said US is ready to mediate border dispute between India and China
Washington: US
President Donald Trump on Wednesday offered to "mediate or arbitrate"
what he called a "now raging border dispute" between India and China.
The comment refers to a build up along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) by
Indian and Chinese armies following a recent face-off in Ladakh.
"We
have informed both India and China that the United States is ready, willing and
able to mediate or arbitrate their now raging border dispute. Thank you!,"
President Trump tweeted.
President Trump's previous
offers to mediate between India and Pakistan on Kashmir were firmly rebuffed by
New Delhi, which has long asserted that there is no role for any third party in
bilateral issues.
Several
areas along the LAC in Ladakh and North Sikkim have seen a military build-up by
the Indian and Chinese armies in a sign of escalating tension and hardening of
positions by the two nations two weeks after they were engaged in separate
face-offs in Sikkim and Ladakh.
Prime
Minister Narendra Modi held a high-level meeting on Tuesday evening to discuss
the stand-off with China, sources said. The three service chiefs, National
Security Advisor Ajit Doval and the Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat
attended the meeting. A separate meeting was held earlier with the foreign secretary.
Satellite
pictures have shown that Beijing is expanding an airbase near Ladakh. Close
shots have even revealed fighter jets on the tarmac.
India
has said the Chinese military has been hindering normal patrolling by its
troops. Officials have strongly refuted Beijing's claim that tension between
the two armies was triggered by Indian forces trespassing on the Chinese side.
New Delhi has asserted that
it has always taken a very responsible approach towards border management.
"Any suggestion that Indian troops had undertaken activity across the LAC
in the Western sector or the Sikkim sector is not accurate. Indian troops are fully
familiar with the alignment of the Line of Actual Control in the India-China
border areas and abide by it scrupulously," foreign ministry spokesperson
Anurag Srivastava said at an online media briefing last week.
Reports
coming from China last night said President Xi Jinping had ordered the military
to scale up battle preparedness, visualising worst-case scenarios, and asked
his troops to resolutely defend the country's sovereignty.
On
a more conciliatory note hours later, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian
told reporters that the situation at the border was "overall stable".
"We are committed to safeguarding our territorial sovereignty and
security, and safeguarding peace and stability in the border areas. Now the
China-India border area situation is overall stable and controllable,"
said Zhao.
China's
military friction with the US has also been on the rise with the American navy
stepping its patrols in the disputed South China Sea as well as the Taiwan
Straits. Washington and Beijing have also engaged in a war of words over the
origin of the coronavirus pandemic.