Want To Ensure India-China Standoff Does Not Escalate, Says US

New Delhi: The United States is watching the India-China standoff in Ladakh closely, sharing information with New Delhi, and wants to ensure the situation does not escalate, senior officials of the Trump administration said on Saturday, ahead of an important visit by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the US Secretary of Defence Mark Esper next week.

The US said it welcomes increased Indian involvement in Southeast Asia including its military presence in the South China Sea and has been working with like-minded partners to counter “China’s aggressive behaviour” from the Himalayas to the disputed oceanic region.

‘We have had an ongoing dialogue with the Indians about the increased cooperation in Southeast Asia, not just the South China Sea. And we encourage their involvement and that cuts across development investments, that cuts across security cooperation and that also involves presence and so, we welcome greater Indian participation across Southeast Asia in all three of those areas,” US officials said in an online news briefing.

“Given China’s increasingly aggressive behaviour across the Indo-Pacific from the Himalayas to the South China Sea, it is more important than ever that we work with like-minded partners such as India. We were pleased to see India’s recent announcement regarding Australia joining the Malabar Naval exercise,” they said.

India along with the US, Japan and Australia will hold the high-level Malabar naval exercises next month. Australia is returning to the high-level naval exercise for the first time after 2007 when its participation drew criticism from China.

On tension in eastern Ladakh that peaked in June this year in a clash that left 20 Indian soldiers dead and an unspecified number of Chinese casualties, the US said, “‘We as a government are covering the situation in the Himalayas closely and understandably. And we certainly want to ensure that the situation does not escalate.”

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