PM Modi discusses India-China tension with US President Donald Trump, days after New Delhi spurned his mediation offer

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday discussed the escalating tension along India’s disputed boundary with China.

Modi also gave his nod to Trump’s proposal to bring India, Australia, South Korea, and Russia into the ambit of the G-7 and turn it into a G-11 – an initiative, which Beijing has already decried as a move by the US to contain China.

The Prime Minister and the US President discussed over phone the situation along the disputed boundary between India and China, although New Delhi just recently joined Beijing to give a cold-shoulder to the offer from the Washington D.C. to mediate between the two neighbouring nations and help them defuse tension on the northern bank of the Pangong Tso lake in eastern Ladakh.

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Modi’s discussion with Trump on tension along India-China boundary and his support to the American President’s move to expand the G-7 into a G-11 may raise the hackles in Beijing, where the twin moves by New Delhi are likely to be seen as signs of India moving further closer to the US and joining what is perceived as a US-led axis to contain China.

Trump told Modi about the US presidency of the G-7 (Group of Seven) and conveyed to him his desire to expand the ambit of the bloc beyond the existing membership by including India and other important countries.

“In this context, he extended an invitation to Prime Minister Modi to attend the next G-7 Summit to be held in the US,” the government said in a press release issued in New Delhi shortly after the two leaders spoke to each other over phone.

The Prime Minister “commended” the US President for his “creative and far-sighted approach”, acknowledging the fact that “such an expanded forum would be in keeping with the emerging realities of the post-COVID-19 world”, it said. Modi also told Trump that India would be happy to work with the US and other countries to ensure the success of the proposed summit of the expanded bloc.

The press release issued by the Prime Minister’s Office mentioned that the “situation on the India-China border”, need for reforms in the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Covid-19 situation in India and the US as topics discussed by the two leaders during the phone-call.

Modi chose to discuss with Trump the escalating tension along the India-China border just a few days after his government rejected the offer by the US President to mediate between the two nations.

Trump on May 27 posted on Twitter that the US had informed both India and China that it was “ready, willing and able” to “mediate” between the two nations or play the role of an arbitrator to resolve the border dispute they had since long been embroiled in.

His offer got a cold shoulder from New Delhi, which pointed out on May 28 that India and China had “established mechanisms both at military and diplomatic levels” to peacefully resolve through bilateral dialogue any “situation, which might arise in border areas between the two nations”.

Beijing too rejected the offer by the US President. Trump, however, reiterated the offer on May 30 and even claimed that he had already talked with Modi and found that he was “not in a good mood” over the situation along India’s boundary with China.

New Delhi dismissed the US President’s claim, stating that he and the Prime Minister had last spoken to each other over the phone on April 4 – almost a month before a scuffle between Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on the northern bank of the Pangong Tso lake on May 5 sparked off tension.

The Chinese PLA followed up by building a bunker in order to restrict the access to an area where Indian Army soldiers regularly patrolled. The PLA later deployed nearly 5000 soldiers in a large camp set up recently at Galwan Valley within the territory claimed by China – in order to support the smaller number of troops, who transgressed the LAC in several locations and entered into the areas claimed by India.

The Indian Army also rushed additional troops “in adequate numbers” in response to the deployment by the Chinese PLA. The build-ups by both sides escalated tension along the LAC and the military officials and diplomats of both sides are now holding discussions to defuse the situation.