India, China hold strategic dialogue

February 22, 2017

Beijing, Feb 22: China and India today held their upgraded strategic dialogue to shore up bilateral ties amid hectic parleys to resolve differences over Beijing's reluctance to support India's NSG bid as well as a UN ban on JeM chief Masood Azhar. Just before the dialogue, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar held talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Welcoming Jaishankar, co-chair of the dialogue, Wang said China and India are two major developing countries and emerging markets besides important nations in the world.

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"We have to have frequent meetings," he said, referring to high-level talks held by officials from both sides on critical issues before today's dialogue. The official-level meetings made very good foundation for the "successful strategic dialogue", he said, adding that the Chinese side attaches importance to "this reconstituted dialogue". "I am certain by raising the level of this strategic dialogue the two sides will be able to enhance their strategic communication, reduce misunderstanding and build more trust and deepen our strategic cooperation," Wang said.

"This way we can better tap into the potential of our bilateral relations and live up to our responsibilities" for the regional stability. In his response, Jaishankar said, "This is the first time that the restructured strategic dialogue is taking place". "This shows that our relationship today has gone well beyond bilateral manifestations," he said.

Stating that the two countries are members of G20, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), BRICS and the East Asia Summit, he said this will "allow us to find more common ground on more issues". Later, Jaishankar along with China's Executive Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui held the strategic dialogue.

In his opening remarks at the dialogue, Jaishankar said, "We have truly transcended the bilateral dimension of our relations. What happens between India and China has both great global and regional significance.

"Our assessment coming in is that our bilateral relations have really acquired a very steady momentum over many years. Our leadership-level meetings have been taking place regularly and our economic engagement is growing. We are seeing cooperation on many international issues and our border areas have maintained peace and tranquility," he said.

"Overall the closer development partnership has been unfolding," he said. Apparently referring to differences, Jaishankar said, "there are natural issues which neighbours have" and it is the responsibility of both the countries to address them. Zhang said "I expect that we discuss the full range of issues that are important to our countries".

Several top officials from both sides, including those in-charge of nuclear disarmament issues, were present at the talks indicating that both sides will be discussing India's entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) besides other issues.

The talks were being held in the backdrop of vocal differences between the two countries on a host of issues including India's concern over the USD 46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Beijing's reluctance to back India's application to join the NSG and the UN ban on Azhar.

The strategic dialogue was upgraded during Chinese Foreign Minister Yi's visit to New Delhi last year. China has deputed Zhang, also the head of the influential Communist Party of China (CPC) committee of the Chinese Foreign Ministry to co-chair the talks.

Ahead of today's talks Jaishankar, who formerly worked as India's Ambassador to China, met China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi yesterday and held talks with him on the critical issues bedevilling the bilateral ties. During their talks, both Yang and Jaishankar expressed strong commitment to develop positive relations despite differences.

Yang, who is the State Councillor and Beijing's Special Representative for border talks between India and China, had said despite differences, relations between the two sides had a positive growth last year.

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News Network
March 25,2020

Hubei, Mar 25: As a bus departed from its terminus at Hankou Railway Station at 5:25 am Wednesday morning, Wuhan started to resume bus service after nine weeks of lockdown.

Apart from a driver, a safety supervisor was also on each bus, whose duty was to make sure all passengers are healthy.
"For those who do not use smartphones, they should bring with them a health certificate issued by the health authorities," said Zhou Jingjing, a safety supervisor aboard bus No. 511 departing from the Wuchang Railway Station complex.
The once hardest-hit city in central China's Hubei Province during the COVID-19 outbreak took unprecedented traffic restrictions on Jan 23. All of its public transport and all outbound flights and trains had been suspended in an attempt to contain the virus within the region.

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Agencies
June 12,2020

Kabul, Jun 12: A blast in a mosque during Friday prayers in the western part of capital Kabul has killed at least four people and wounded many more, Afghanistan's interior ministry said.

"Explosives placed inside the Sher Shah Suri Mosque exploded during Friday prayers," said a statement issued by the ministry, which added that the mosque's prayer leader Mofleh Frotan was among those killed.

Interior ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said police have cordoned off the area and helped move the wounded to ambulances and nearby hospitals.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but a mosque attack earlier this month was claimed by an ISIL (or ISIS) group affiliate, headquartered in eastern Afghanistan's Nangarhar province.

"Interestingly, every time you have the peace process gaining some momentum and pace, you have these kinds of attacks in the country," Habib Wardak, a national security analyst based in Kabul, told Al Jazeera.

"The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack that happened last week on a mosque in Kabul, so despite the fact that you have these news and press conference from the government that they have eliminated ISIL, how can they conduct such sophisticated operations?"

Friday's blast had parallels to one earlier this month, when an explosion tore apart a famous Kabul mosque and led to the death of renowned Afghan cleric Maulvi Ayaz Niazi.

"In this attack, the imam seems to be the target, not the rest of the crowd. These are the imams who have supported the peace process with the Taliban movement," Wardak said.

"The other political aspect for these kinds of attacks is that there are peace spoilers trying to convey a message that peace with the Taliban will not eradicate violence in the country because you have ISIL."

Violence has spiked in recent weeks in Afghanistan with most of the attacks claimed by the ISIL affiliate.

The United States blamed the armed group for a horrific attack last month on a maternity hospital in the capital that killed 24 people, including two infants and several new mothers.

The ISIL affiliate also took responsibility for an attack on a bus carrying journalists in Kabul on May 30, killing two.

It also claimed credit for an attack on the funeral of a strongman loyal to the government last month that killed 35 people.

Meanwhile, the US is attempting to broker peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban to end 18 years of war.

Washington's peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad was in the region earlier this week trying to resuscitate a US peace deal with the Taliban.

The peace deal signed in February calls for the withdrawal of the US and NATO troops from Afghanistan in return for a commitment by the Taliban to not launch attacks on the US or its allies.

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Agencies
July 17,2020

Washington, Jul 17: US President Donald Trump's economic adviser Larry Kudlow has said that TikTok may cut off ties to its Chinese parent and become a 100 per cent American company to circumvent demands to ban it as India has done.

"I think TikTok is going to pull out of the holding company which is China-run and operate as an independent American company," he told reporters at the White House on Thursday.

The US has not made a final decision on whether to ban it - which has been suggested by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, he said.

TikTok being divested by ByteDance Technology Company "is a much better solution than banning or pushing away", said Kudlow, who is the Director of the National Economic Council.

He said that its services will be located in the US and "it will become an hundred per cent American company".

If it becomes a US company without Chinese links, India may have to reconsider the ban on the short video app wildly popular in the country.

India banned TikTok along with 58 other Chinese apps on June 29 citing threats to its defence and national security.

The ban came after a deadly clash between Indian and Chinese troops along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh.

Under Beijing's National Security Law, all Chinese companies have to provide intelligence requested by the government, creating risks for users and their countries.

India was TikTok's biggest market outside of China, where it operates as Douyin.

There were about 200 million users in India and over 300 million downloads.

The US comes next with over 30 million users for the app.

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