The United States (US) has said it opposes any “unilateral attempts” and incursions across the Line of Actual Control (LAC), days after Chinese President Xi Jinping met People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers stationed at the India-China border to “inspect combat readiness”.
In response to a question by HT at a regular State Department press briefing on Friday on Xi’s comments to PLA troops, the Department’s principal deputy press spokesperson Vedant Patel said that the US is closely monitoring the situation.
“We strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to advance territorial claims by incursions, military or civilian, across the border or the established Line of Actual Control,” said Patel.
The US encourages India and China to utilise “existing bilateral channels to discuss disputed boundaries”, Patel added.
Ahead of the first high level dialogue of the initiative on critical and emerging technology between the national security adviser Ajit Doval and his US counterpart Jake Sullivan in Washington DC next week, the State Department also highlighted the importance of the tech cooperation with India. Technology-sharing has been a contentious issue in the past in the relationship.
“India is an important partner of choice for the United States in a number of spaces. That includes trade cooperation. It of course includes security cooperation. It also includes technological cooperation as well,” said Patel. “So I don’t want to get too ahead of the process or get ahead of any specific meetings that might be coming down the pike, but this is of course of great importance to us.” (Hindustan Times)
