‘India will not bow down’ – defense minister on talks with China

Talks with China on border issues are going smoothly, but India will not “bow down,” according to Defense Minister Rajnath Singh. He said that New Delhi wanted to maintain good relations with its neighbors and had become a stronger power, while reiterating the desire to increase weapons exports.

India exported arms worth approximately $2.63 billion in the last fiscal year, a growth of 32.5%. “India is no longer a weak India. India has also become a powerful country from a military point of view,” the minister said while addressing a political rally in Gujarat state on Sunday.

Ties with Beijing remain tense due to a series of skirmishes along the disputed Himalayan border in recent years, but Singh noted that talks between New Delhi and Beijing were proceeding “in a good environment.” “But I want to assure [our] countrymen that India has not bowed down anywhere, nor will it ever bow down,” he said, according to Economic Times.

In a recent interview, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed that New Delhi and Beijing need to “urgently address” ongoing border disputes and resolve the “abnormality” in their bilateral ties. India’s relations with China have been marked by unease since their soldiers clashed in the disputed Galwan Valley in June 2020, leading to casualties on both sides. Despite disengagement and de-escalation at the border afterward, several friction points remain.

The two nations have held more than 20 rounds of border talks since the Galwan incident, with the latest taking place earlier this month. Modi also met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in South Africa last year and the duo are said to have discussed the boundary issue.

This year, tensions have resurfaced over Chinese claims to the Arunachal Pradesh region in India, which it calls ‘Zangnan’. Beijing protested after Modi visited in March to inaugurate a tunnel built to hasten Indian troop deployments to the area. New Delhi, in turn, slammed China for purporting to rename a dozen regional locations, a move described as “senseless” by the Indian Foreign Ministry.

The border standoff has emerged as a hot topic in India’s current election cycle. The country is in the midst of a six-week polling process for its 18th parliament, which will determine the new government and prime minister. Modi is seeking a third term with his Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) eyeing a comfortable majority in the 543-seat Lok Sabha, the lower house.

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