Japan slams China for trying to unilaterally change status quo along disputed boundary with India

Tokyo on Friday tacitly slammed Beijing for trying to unilaterally change the status quo on the disputed boundary between India and China in eastern Ladakh.

“Japan opposes any unilateral attempts to change the status quo,” Tokyo’s envoy to New Delhi, Satoshi Suzuki, posted on Twitter after a meeting with Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla at South Block in New Delhi. Shringla briefed Suzuki about the continuing military stand-off along the disputed India-China boundary.

Japan is also irked by China’s military muscle-flexing in the East China Sea, particularly around the disputed Senkaku Islands. “Had a good talk with FS Shringla. Appreciated his briefing on the situation along LAC, including GOI’s policy to pursue peaceful resolution. Japan also hopes for peaceful resolution through dialogues,” tweeted Suzuki.

The Foreign Secretary also briefed the envoys of the United States, France, Russia and Germany in New Delhi over the past few days about the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) – the de facto boundary between India and China in western sector.

Shringla recently had video-conferences with his French and German counterparts too. New Delhi’s envoy to Washington D.C., Taranjit Singh Sandhu, too had a meeting with the US Deputy Secretary of State, Stephen Biegun, early on Friday.

“Today, Deputy Secretary Biegun met with Ambassador @SandhuTaranjitS at the Embassy of India to discuss the US-India Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership, which remains resolute & (and) resilient as we advance our shared goals in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond,” tweeted the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs of the US State Department.

The US and India joined Japan and Australia in November 2017 to re-launch the ‘Quad’ to contain the expansionist aspirations of China in Indo-Pacific.

The US has now initiated a move to expand the Quad into a Quad Plus, roping in other Indo-Pacific democracies to build bulwark against China’s belligerence in post Covid-19 world.

New Delhi had a few weeks ago cold-shouldered US President Donald Trump’s offer to mediate between India and China to resolve the stand-off along the disputed boundary, stating that it was trying to defuse tension through the existing bilateral mechanisms with Beijing. But when Trump called Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 2, the two leaders discussed the situation along India-China LAC.