The United states is talking to both India and China to help them resolve their ongoing border dispute, the United States President Donald Trump said on Saturday.
“It’s a very tough situation. We’re talking to India. We’re talking to China. They’ve got a big problem there,” Trump told reporters at the White House before boarding Marine 1 on his way to his first post-COVID-19 election rally in Oklahoma.
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“They’ve come to blows, and we’ll see what happens. We’ll try and help them out,” Trump said when asked about his assessment of the situation between India and China.
As many as 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a fierce clash against China’s Peoples’s Liberation Army at Galwan Valley in Ladakh early this week. Later on Friday ten Indian soldiers were released from China’s captive after prolonged negotiations between the two armies.
US Senator Mitch McConnell said on Thursday that, for the sake of grabbing territory, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China appears to have instigated the most violent clash between the two Asian giants.
“On land, for the sake of grabbing territory, the PLA appears to have instigated the most violent clash between China and India since those nations went to war in 1962,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a major foreign policy speech on the floor of the House.
“Needless to say, the rest of the world has watched with grave concern this violent exchange between two nuclear states. We are encouraging de-escalation and hoping for peace,” McConnell said.
Addressing the aggressive behaviour of China, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday, “The PLA has escalated border tensions with India, the world’s most populous democracy. It’s militarizing the South China Sea and illegally claiming more territory there, threatening vital sea lanes”.
In his virtual address on ”Europe and the China Challenge” during the 2020 Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Friday, Pompeo described the ruling Chinese Communist Party as a “rogue actor.”
During a phone call on June 2nd that Trump had with Prime Minister Modi, they did discuss the situation on the Indo-China border, McEnany said.