India prepares for ‘collusive’ threat from China and Pakistan, Rajnath asks forces to be ready-ThePrint

• Defense Minister Rajnath Singh has asked the armed forces to be prepared to respond at a short notice as well as build & sustain military capabilities to deter any adversary.
• Singh during Wed addressed top IAF commanders at the Air Force Headquarters and alluded to the ongoing efforts for de-escalation at the LAC and urged the IAF to “stand ready to handle any eventuality”, a statement from the IAF said.
• Meanwhile, sources told ThePrint that the minister has asked the armed forces to be prepared to respond at a short notice as well as build and sustain military capabilities to deter any adversary in the long run.
• Sources said that Pakistan’s silence has been particularly surprising because they have not heated up the LoC as expected and nor have any large-scale movements taken place.

US lawmakers pass legislation urging China to de-escalate situation with India along LAC-TOI

• The US House of Representatives has passed a bipartisan legislation, passed on Tue came a day after the House unanimously passed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), slamming China’s aggression against India in the Galwan Valley and its growing territorial assertiveness in and around disputed areas like the South China Sea.
• The resolution, sponsored by Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi along with 8 others, was passed by the House along with NDAA for the fiscal year 2021 and condemned Chinese aggression towards India along the Line of Actual Control.
• “China’s military provocations of India are unacceptable, and the peaceful resolution of their border standoff will help restore greater security to the Indo-Pacific region,” he said.
• Through this vote, the US House of Representatives has reaffirmed the readiness of the US to stand with its allies and partners like India against Chinese military aggression, Krishnamoorthi said.
• Other co-sponsors of the resolution are Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna and lawmakers Frank Pallone, Tom Suozzi, Ted Yoho, George Holding, Sheila Jackson-Lee, Haley Stevens and Steve Chabot.

China Cannot Threaten Countries And Bully Them In Himalayas: Mike Pompeo-NDTV

• India-China stand-off: Mike Pompeo’s comment on Chinese bullying of its Himalayan neighbors came in response to a question if the US would like the UK to do more to confront China.
• Slamming China for its aggressive moves against its neighbors, including “instigating” a deadly confrontation with India in eastern Ladakh, US Secretary of State Pompeo has said that Beijing cannot threaten countries and try to bully them in the Himalayas.
• Speaking at a news conference in London on Tuesday, Mr Pompeo said China was one of the important parts of his discussions with his British counterpart Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.
• “You can’t go make claims for maritime regions that you have no lawful claim to. You can’t threaten countries and bully them in the Himalayas. You can’t engage in cover-ups and co-opt international institutions like the World Health Organization,” Mr Pompeo said.
• “I don’t think about it that way; we don’t think about it that way. We think that the entire world needs to work together to ensure that every country, including China, behaves in the international system in ways that are appropriate and consistent with the international order,” he said.
• The discussions between Mike Pompeo and Dominic Raab came hours after the UK suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong in response to a controversial security law imposed by China in the former British territory.
• Earlier on Tuesday, US Secretary of Defence Mark Esper, during his interaction with London-based think-tank International Institute for Strategic Studies, described the Chinese military’s aggressive activities “destabilising” and said America was “very closely” monitoring the situation between India and China along the Line of Actual Control.
• Mr Esper also highlighted the “increased” military cooperation with India and called it as “one of the most important defense relationships of the 21th century.”
• In his address, Mr Esper said China has a catalogue of bad behavior which accompanies a pattern of its brazen disregard for international commitments, from its failure to uphold its obligations under the World Trade Organization to regularly disrespecting the rights of other nations under the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention.
• Mr Esper called on China’s leaders to abide by the international laws and norms that China and the Chinese people have benefited greatly from over the years.

U.S. Asked China to Close Houston Consulate, Global Times Editor Says

• The U.S. abruptly ordered China to close its consulate in Houston in an “unprecedented escalation,” according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin.
• The move was unilaterally initiated by the U.S. and China would make the necessary response, Wang told reporters in Beijing on Wed.
• He said Chinese officials in the U.S. had received bomb and death threats in the past.
• “If the U.S. continues to go down the wrong path, we will resolutely respond,” Wang said.
• The U.S. gave China 72 hours to close its consulate in Houston, according to Hu Xijin, the editor of the Communist Party’s Global Times newspaper.
• Hours after US asked China to vacate its Consulate in Houston, now firefighters can be seen responding to reports of people burning documents at the Chinese consulate. What secrets are Chinese diplomats burning? As firefighters didn’t allowed to step in.
• US imposed restrictions on Chinese diplomats to the US in Oct 2019 & June 2020 and also opened Chinese diplomatic bags on many occasions. The decision to close the Chinese Consulate General in Houston is an unprecedented escalation of its moves against China: Chinese FM

Border dispute: China has 200,000 troops at LAC in conflict-ready mode- Business Standard

• With China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) intruders still occupying Indian Territory and large PLA reinforcements ready on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC), Indian military planners are calculating: How many more soldiers can the PLA quickly field if fighting were to break out?
• US-based PLA expert Dennis Blasko told Business Standard that he estimates that around 235,000 PLA troops, including border defense personnel and the PLA’s cutting edge “mobile operational units”, are located in the PLA’s Western Theatre Command, which oversees the entire Sino-India border as well as China’s restive autonomous areas – Tibet and Xinjiang.
• In March, the Belfer Centre at Harvard’s Kennedy School also estimated “a total of 200,000-230,000 Chinese ground forces under the Western Theatre Command, including the Tibet and Xinjiang Military Districts.”
• These numbers include the PLA’s lightly equipped “Border Defense Units, (BDU)” which are permanently stationed along the border and are geared for border management and patrolling, not for full-scale combat operations.
• According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), about 16 Border Defense Regiments, with about 40,000 personnel, monitor Tibet and Xinjiang’s 5,000-kilometre border with India, Nepal and Bhutan.
• These BDU are strung out in remote outposts all along the border to observe activity and conduct patrols between outposts by foot or by vehicle, depending on the terrain, sometimes using small drones.

First Rafales to touch down on July 27 amid rising tensions with China- Business Standard

• The aircraft will form the nucleus of the IAF’s first Rafale squadron, Number 17 Squadron, which calls itself the Golden Arrows. They will be based in Ambala
• In a boost to the morale of the Indian Air Force (IAF), which finds itself preparing for the possibility of hostilities with China, its first five Rafale fighter aircraft will land on Indian soil next Monday (July 27).
• The five Rafales will take off from Istres, France, and will be flown to India by IAF pilots, with mid-air refueling en-route from an accompanying French air force tanker aircraft.
• They will make just one stopover – at the United Arab Emirates’ Al Dhafra Air Base near Abu Dhabi, according to Livefist, an authoritative defence blog.
• The IAF stated on Monday that the arrival of the first Rafales will be low-key and without ceremony or media coverage. A more public inauguration will take place at the end of Aug.
• Rafale vendor Thales, MKU to jointly develop night vision device for army
• The two companies have further strengthened the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in 2018 for strategic co-operation on developing optronic devices