Chinese Foreign Minister to visit India for border talks amid reset in ties
Doval visited China last year and held talks on the border issue with Wang, days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping sat down for a bilateral in the Russian city of Kazan.It was the first face-to-face meeting between PM Modi and Xi Jinping after the 2020 Galwan clash over a border dispute in eastern Ladakh deteriorated ties. The two leaders decided to revive various bilateral dialogue mechanisms.The meeting came after India and China agreed to disengage and resume patrolling in the remaining two friction points along the LAC - Depsang Plains and Demchok.Wang Yi is also likely to prepare the ground for PM Modi's visit to China - his first in seven years - to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit. During his visit, likely at the end of the month, PM Modi is also likely to hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.The thaw in ties has also been reflected in the diplomatic sphere.The Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, a significant pilgrimage route for Hindus, has been restarted. India and China have also resumed tourist visas after a five-year gap. The countries are also likely to resume direct flight services as early as next month, Reuters reported.- EndsMust Watch
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Hindustan Times
a few seconds ago
- Hindustan Times
No fresh hike in tariff over oil, Donald Trump hints
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Hindustan Times
a few seconds ago
- Hindustan Times
Limbo over envoy hits Indo-US progress
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New Indian Express
15 minutes ago
- New Indian Express
Half-baked Alaska: Trump, Putin leave peace in the oven
It is instructive that disappointment at the fizzle-out was not accompanied by surprise. Trump and Putin are given to hyperbole and carry the carcass of failed forecasts and claims. In September 2014, Putin claimed that Russian forces could conquer Kyiv in two weeks. Then, in February 2022, Putin declared that Russia would get to Kyiv within days. Similarly, Trump claimed in the run-up to the US presidential polls he would end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. Three years and nearly a million deaths later, Russia is far from claiming victory and Trump's claim has been flailing for over 207 days. Trump draws his inspiration for geopolitics from his experience as a deal-making real estate baron. It is not surprising that he spoke about swapping land—much like realtors in Delhi exchanging corner plots for parcels of land. Business is omnipresent in Trump's playbook. The US entourage included Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Titled 'Pursuing Peace', the summit seemed less about the war and more a bilateral investment and trade meet between two friendly, not adversarial, nations. It is manifest that the US toolbox included a minerals-for-peace idea as a sweetener for Putin. In the run-up to the summit, Bessant held forth that it would explore commercial ties between the US and Russia, and declared that all options were on the table. The options included opening up Alaska's natural resources to Russia (which arguably has the capability to explore such a terrain), lifting of sanctions on Russian aviation, and even access to the rare earth deposits in territories currently occupied by Russia. It may be recalled that in May, Trump and Zelenskyy signed a minerals-for-peace deal. Ukraine has 22 of the 50 minerals defined by the US Geological Survey as critical for the production of chips, electric vehicles and defence equipment. The deal was billed by Trump as a payback for the $300-billion US support to Ukraine. The reality, as a recent study by Science Direct shows, is that nearly half of Ukraine's metal resources are now under Russian occupation. Clearly, even though the issue of ceasefire was unresolved, the two sides which met for nearly three hours did discuss possibilities that could unravel in the future.
