Violent Border Face-Off: China releases 10 Indian soldiers

China has returned 10 Indian soldiers captured during a deadly border clash earlier this week, an Indian government source said yesterday, as two Asian nuclear powers sought to de-escalate tensions on their disputed border in the western Himalayas.

The Indian army did not comment on the release, which according to the source took place on Thursday evening, instead referring to a government statement that said all of its soldiers were accounted for.

In a briefing in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian denied any Indian troops had been in its custody.

"As far as I know China hasn't seized any Indian personnel," Zhao said.

According to Indian media, the freed personnel include two officers of the rank of major.

Twenty Indian soldiers, including an officer were killed in vicious hand-to-hand combat on Monday night in the Galwan Valley, according to the government, making it the deadliest clash on the India-China border in more than five decades.

India has said the Chinese side also suffered casualties too, but the Chinese government has not disclosed any.

Despite the tensions, India yesterday said it will receive 750 million dollars from China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to cope with the effects of Covid-19 on the poor and vulnerable households.

The current loan will be the second to India from AIIB under its COVID-19 crisis recovery facility apart from the earlier approved $500 million loan for the COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness Project, reported our New Delhi correspondent.

On Thursday, Indian foreign ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava said that Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar would take part in a previously scheduled virtual meeting with counterparts from Russia and China on June 23.

Jaishankar spoke to senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi on Wednesday and they agreed not to take any steps to escalate matters.

But Jaishankar and Wang Yi traded blame for the deadliest border clash since 1967 and called for the other side to rein in its troops.

Since the clashes, military officials have held talks but there is no sign of a breakthrough.  And a day after the funerals of some of the soldiers in their hometowns, the public mood was hardening in India, with growing calls for revenge and a boycott of Chinese-made goods.

With his nation in shock over the loss its soldiers lives, Prime Minister Narendra Modi faces one of the most difficult foreign policy challenges since he came to power in 2014.

Modi chaired an all-party meeting in New Delhi yesterday to discuss the crisis. The video meeting began with Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and the foreign minister briefing the parties on the deadly brawl at Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee were among the leaders who attended the meeting via video conference and conveyed their strong support to the government.

Some 76 soldiers were injured as the Chinese assaulted them with hand-made weapons like spiked clubs, rods wrapped in barbed wire and rocks, Indian sources said.

US SYMPATHY

The United States offered condolences to India yesterday over the deaths its soldiers, reports Reuters.

"We extend our deepest condolences to the people of India for the lives lost as a result of the recent confrontation with China," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a message posted on Twitter.

"We will remember the soldiers' families, loved ones, and communities as they grieve."

Having actively sought greater economic engagement with China, Modi is compelled to review the state of those ties, just at a time when Sino-US relations have also deteriorated.

As a non-aligned nation, India has always sought to balance the influence of super-powers, while maintaining an independent course in foreign policy matters.

But in the past two decades, New Delhi has built closer political and defence ties with Washington, and the United States has become one of India's top arms suppliers.

In the wake of the rising tensions with Beijing, there are rising calls from top former Indian diplomats for an even tighter relationship with the US and its allies such as Japan to help face the economic and military might of China.

"This is an opportunity for India to align its interests much more strongly and unequivocally with the US as a principal strategic partner and infuse more energy into relations with Japan, Australia, and Asean," former foreign secretary Nirupama Rao wrote in The Hindu newspaper.