Trump claim of talks with PM on China row denied

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not spoken with US President Donald Trump about the country’s military standoff with China, a government source said yesterday, after Trump suggested Modi was upset about the border tension.

Indian and Chinese troops have been facing off along the disputed border in the western Himalayas since early May. Indian military officials claim after Chinese troops had intruded into Indian territory.

“They have a big conflict going with India and China. Two countries with 1.4bn people. Two countries with very powerful militaries,” Trump told reporters, according to a White House transcript.

“And India is not happy, and probably China is not happy. But I can tell you, I did speak to Prime Minister Modi. He’s not — he’s not in a good mood about what’s going on with China,” Trump added.

The president did not specify when exactly he spoke to Modi about the ongoing stand-off

The comments followed a Twitter post the previous day in which Trump said the US had told India and China that it was ready to arbitrate their “raging border dispute”, the first time he has thrown himself into IndiaChina diplomacy.

But Indian officials expressed surprise at Trump’s latest remarks.

“There has been no recent contact between PM Modi and President Trump,” a government source said. “The last conversation between them was on April 4, on the subject of hydroxychloroquine.”

The source spoke on condition of anonymity, citing diplomatic sensitivities.

On Trump’s offer to mediate between the two nucleararmed nations, the source said, “the Indian foreign ministry had also made it clear that we are directly in touch with the Chinese through established mechanisms and diplomatic contacts.”

China’s foreign ministry yesterday said there was no need for a third party to mediate.

Both countries lay claim to thousands of kilometres of territory in each other’s possession along a vast stretch of the Himalayas.

They went to war in 1962 and have not been able to settle the border since, prompting occasional flare-ups between border troops.

Military observers say one likely reason for the renewed border tension in the Ladakh sector is India’s effort to build new airstrips and roads near the de-facto border to try to narrow the gap with China’s superior infrastructure.

During talks to resolve the crisis, the Chinese side have demanded that India stop all construction activity in the area, saying the whole area is disputed, one of the sources said.