[NATIONAL]

The pullback from Gogra, but no breakthrough on Hot Springs

India and China have agreed to pull back troops from one of the friction points — called PP 17-A, also referred to as Gogra — along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh.

US shares number of interests and values with India, says Biden admin

Blinken’s recent visit to New Delhi was an opportunity to explore ways to strengthen comprehensive global strategic ties with India, said US State Department spokesperson.

Biden’s US promised Covid vaccines for India but here’s why they may never arrive

Covid vaccine talks between India and the US seem to have reached a dead-end in the absence of consensus over indemnity issues.

Australia makes fresh push for free trade deal, sends former PM Abbott to talk to Modi govt

Australia is planning to begin negotiations for the long-pending trade pact with India even as sticky issues concerning tariff reduction in agriculture goods remain.

Pakistan should take credible, verifiable action against terrorism, envoy Tirumurti says

India’s Permanent Representative to the UN said the onus is on Pakistan to create a conducive atmosphere that is free of terror, hostility, and violence.

Indian Army chopper crashes in J-K’s Kathua, Both Piolets safe

A helicopter of the Indian Army’s aviation corps with at least five people on board crashed near the Ranjit Sagar Dam in the Basohli area of Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua, a senior police official said on Tue.

During the ongoing pandemic, PMGKY reduces worries of the poor, boosts their confidence: PM Modi

PM Narendra Modi on Tue addressed the beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana and said this scheme has reduced the worries of the poor and increased their confidence. This scheme is going to last till Diwali.

Quad special forces to wargame off Guam in Indo-Pacific

Indian Navy will be represented by 2 surface combatants led by Guided Missile Destroyer INS Ranvijay and Frigate INS Shivalik along with maritime reconnaissance aircraft P8I, ASW helicopters, and special forces.

[NEIGHBORHOOD]

Missile silo splurge reflects China’s “Cold War Mentality”

Just what is China doing? Last week it was revealed that the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) is building yet another vast field of silos from which to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Nepal government sends team to investigate Darchula incident along the Indian border

The home ministry has dismissed the reports of India-Nepal border guarding force Sashastra Seema Bal allegedly snapping the rope of an improvised cable. 

Why Gilgit-Baltistan matters to India and Pakistan

The Pakistan government has finalized legislation for incorporating the region as a province. How was it ruled so far, and why the change of status now?

In support of Afghan forces, Herat residents unite to give a tough fight to the Taliban  

Chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ or ‘God is Great’, several residents united against the Taliban and marched on the streets of Herat city. The residents also announced their support to the Afghanistan govt forces and vowed to defend the province. The residents also looked to celebrate Afghan National Defence and Security Forces’ advances in the fight against the Taliban and marched on the streets of Herat city, which lies on the west, on Mon night, a TOLOnews report said. 

‘Indiscriminate’ Afghan fighting hurting civilians the most, says UN

Officials said insurgents had seized more than a dozen local radio and TV stations in Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province, and the scene of days of fierce fighting, leaving only one pro-Taliban channel broadcasting Islamic programming. Afghan forces battled the Taliban for control of a key provincial capital Tuesday, as the United Nations warned “indiscriminate” gunfire and airstrikes were hurting civilians the most.

Coronavirus in Pakistan: What is the Epsilon strain?

The Epsilon coronavirus strain is reportedly resistant to coronavirus vaccines and has an “indirect and unusual neutralization escape strategy”. The virus strain B.1.429 which was first detected in California is reportedly resistant to coronavirus vaccines. US CDC had earlier categorized the strain as “variants of concern” due to a surge in cases in California.

The pullback from Gogra, but no breakthrough on Hot Springs

• India and China have agreed to pull back troops from one of the friction points — called PP 17-A, also referred to as Gogra — along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.
• The impasse over another friction point — PP 15, also referred to as Hot Springs — will need further discussions as the LAC claims of both sides to differ and overlap.
• The 832-km LAC in Ladakh is undefined on the ground and both sides have claims and counterclaims
• The mutual disengagement from PP 17-A was expected to be physically implemented over the next 3-4 days.
• The disengagement at this point would entail increasing the distance between fully armed troops of either side, it’s like creating a “wider buffer zone” to prevent any flare-up.
• Currently, tanks, guns, missile launchers, and troops are lined up within striking distance of each other on the Ladakh plateau, which is at an altitude of 14,000 ft.
• The Gogra disengagement was agreed upon at the 12th round of India-China Corps Commander-level talks held at the Chushul-Moldo border meeting point on July 31.
• There was no discussion on disengaging from the Depsang Bulge, a 972-sq km plateau.

Disengagement over next 3-4 days: Disengagement from PP 17-A (Gogra) is expected to be physically implemented over the next 3-4 days

It will entail increasing the distance between both armies to create a ‘wider buffer zone’ to prevent any incident

The joint statement released by MoD: “The two sides had a candid and in-depth exchange of views on resolution of remaining areas…. They agreed to resolve these remaining issues in an expeditious manner in accordance with the existing agreements” This round of meetings was held following the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of India and China on July 14 at Dushanbe and the 22nd meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs held on June 25.

US shares number of interests and values with India, says Biden admin

• I think you heard from us at the time, it was the Secretary’s first opportunity as Secretary of State to travel to India. It was also an opportunity for us to explore ways that we can strengthen and deepen the comprehensive global strategic partnership that we have with India, State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters at his daily news conference Mon.
• The other point that we made, is that we have many shared interests and shared values with the government of India, he said responding to a question on the recent visit of Blinken to India.
• We have talked about this in terms of our economic ties, in terms of our trade ties, in terms of our cooperation on climate, in terms of regional security issues, in terms of India’s role as an important member of the Quad, and our cooperation to put an end to the COVID-19 pandemic, including with the enhanced vaccine production capability that the Quad arrived at earlier this year, Price said.
• President Joe Biden is very much looking forward to a leader-level Quad summit later this year, he said.
• But, with all that, America’s relationship with India is one that also extends to the Indian people.
• The ties between the American people and the Indian people are deep, they’re enduring, they are predicated on familial ties, they are predicated on mutual respect for one another’s heritage and culture.
• These are also ties that were on full display, during not only the meetings with our government counterparts but also with elements of civil society, and the secretary as he almost always does, had an opportunity to visit the embassy, in New Delhi, he said.
• And to thank not only the American diplomats who are there but also the Indian national who is so important and so vital to our mission to deepen and strengthen that comprehensive global strategic partnership, he added.

Biden’s US promised Covid vaccines for India but here’s why they may never arrive: The failure to achieve consensus over indemnity could potentially derail the US’ promised vaccine grants for India. India, it seems, has decided that “it will not accept” any vaccine donations from the US as an amicable solution on indemnity issues eludes, ThePrint reported citing anonymous sources.

Quad special forces to wargame off Guam in Indo-Pacific

The Quad navies will be conducting amphibious operations involving special forces, live firing, and anti-submarine warfare operations off the coast of Guam in the Indo-Pacific as part of Malabar 2021 exercises. The harbor phase of the Malabar naval exercises is scheduled for Aug 21-24, while the sea phase of the annual exercise will be held on Aug 25-29.

• According to South Block sources, US Navy is bringing in no less than three warships including destroyers, maritime reconnaissance aircraft P 8, anti-submarine warfare helicopters, and special forces.
• Indian Navy will be represented by two surface combatants led by Guided Missile Destroyer INS Ranvijay and Frigate INS Shivalik along with maritime reconnaissance aircraft P8I, ASW helicopters, and special forces.
• The Japanese Navy is bringing in three surface combatants, a submarine mine-layer, maritime reconnaissance aircraft, ASW helicopters, and special forces. The Australian Navy will participate in Malabar with one ship, an ASW helicopter, and special forces.
• The last Malabar exercise off the coast of Guam was held in 2018 with Japanese, Indian, and US Navy participating in the advanced naval war games. The Australian Navy joined the Malabar exercises as part of Quad last year.
• The Quad navies, according to officials, will be interacting with each other during the Malabar exercises with notes being exchanged on how to enforce the rule of law in the Indo-Pacific in wake of an aggressive Chinese Navy.
• The exercises will involve freedom of navigation operations with the Indian Navy conducting bilateral exercises with Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, and Australian Navy both in the SCS and the Indo-Pacific.
• While the Quad exercises are expected to rankle the PLA Navy and Beijing, the Chinese propaganda machine will also be hyperactive by show-casing the DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missile also called the Guam killer about the US Naval base in the far Pacific territory.
• The Malabar exercises come just before the much-awaited Quad summit in the US in which Australian, Japanese and Indian leaders will meet US President Joe Biden in Oct.

The dates and venue of the Quad summit are being worked out, keeping in mind the Japanese general election in that month.

Pakistan should take credible, verifiable action against terrorism, envoy Tirumurti says

• India desires normal neighborly relations with Pakistan and the onus is on Islamabad to create a conducive atmosphere that is free of terror, hostility, and violence, New Delhi’s Permanent Representative to the UN and President of Security Council for Aug Ambassador T S Tirumurti.
• India, currently a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the 2021-22 tenure, assumed the rotating Presidency of the powerful UN organ for August. Tirumurti briefed reporters on the Council’s Programme of Work for August.

Responding to a question on Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, Tirumurti referred to the Simla Agreement between India and Pakistan that provides for a bilateral discussion and resolution of issues.

Gilgit-Baltistan to incorporate Gilgit-Baltistan, the region known before 2009 as Northern Areas

• Pakistan’s Law and Justice Ministry has finalized draft legislation to incorporate Gilgit-Baltistan, the region known before 2009 as Northern Areas, as a province of the country, according to a report in Dawn newspaper.
• New Delhi, which has asserted that Gilgit-Baltistan is an integral part of India “under the legal, complete and irrevocable accession of Jammu & Kashmir to the Union of India in 1947”, is yet to respond to the latest report, but is certain to do so.
• The area’s strategic importance for India has increased in light of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor agreement, under which Beijing is investing hugely to develop the area as part of its Belt and Road Initiative, and the concerns of a two-front war after the standoff in Eastern Ladakh last year.

History of the region: Gilgit was part of the princely state of J&K but was ruled directly by the British, who had taken it on lease from Hari Singh, the Hindu ruler of the Muslim-majority state. When Hari Singh acceded to India on Oct 26, 1947, the Gilgit Scouts rose in rebellion, led by their British commander Major William Alexander Brown. The Gilgit Scouts also moved to take over Baltistan, which was then part of Ladakh and captured Skardu, Kargil, and Dras. In battles thereafter, Indian forces retook Kargil and Dras in August 1948.

Provincial status: On Nov 1, 2020, observed in Gilgit-Baltistan as “Independence Day”, Imran Khan announced that his Govt would give the region “provisional provincial status”. In March this year, the newly elected Assembly passed a unanimous resolution demanding an amendment to the Constitution to make Gilgit-Baltistan a provisional province of Pakistan, “without prejudice to the Kashmir dispute”.

Tony Abbott appointed Australia PM Scott Morrison’s special trade envoy for India

• Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has been appointed Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s Special Trade Envoy for India to increase bilateral trade and investment to propel the economic relationship towards its full potential.
• Abbott would be in India from Aug 2 to 6 and will be meeting ministers, businesspeople, and think tanks to energize bilateral economic ties. Australia’s High Commissioner to India Barry O’Farrell said on Mon that the bilateral relationship is at a historic high.
• The envoy said that Australia is keen to deepen trade and investment links with India and take the economic relationship to next level.
• Barry O’Farrell said increasing bilateral trade and investment will help drive economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and build secure and resilient supply chains.
• “Mr. Abbott looks forward to discussions on the India-Australia Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement, which will propel our economic relationship to its full potential, to the mutual benefit of the Indian and Australian people,” he added.

Both India and Australia are members of the Quad, Commonwealth, Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), ASEAN Regional Forum, and Asia Pacific Partnership on Climate and Clean Development. (ANI)

Does the missile silo splurge reflect China’s “Cold War Mentality” Just what is China doing? ANI

• Last week it was revealed that the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) is building yet another vast field of silos from which to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM).
• This discovery on satellite imagery of approximately 110 under-construction underground silos in Xinjiang comes on top of last month’s revelation of a network of 120 silos in landlocked Gansu Province.
• Already the world is on edge over China’s unprecedented military modernization under Chairman Xi Jinping, and the country is now accelerating efforts to boost its nuclear weapon arsenal.
• This newest silo field for DF-41 ICBMs – each missile with an estimated range of 12,000-15,000km, and their warheads containing up to 5-6 multiple independent re-entry vehicles (MIRV) – was discovered by Matt Korda, Research Associate for the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, using commercially available satellite imagery from Planet.
• Located near the city of Hami in eastern Xinjiang, this newest silo field is 380 km northwest of the one near Yumen, in which construction started in March only.
• Satellites showed dome shelters erected over at least 14 silos, while another 19 have had soil cleared ready for silo construction to start. The domes will be removed after sensitive construction work is completed. Laid out in an almost perfect grid pattern covering some 800 km², about 110 silos will be built 3km apart.
• This means they are very similar to the layout at Yumen. There is debate over whether each silo would host a missile since some could be decoys. Alternatively, they could represent a “shell game”, the conman’s trick of shuffling hidden objects to fool an observer.
• The FAS thus commented, “It is unclear how China will operate the new silos, whether it will load all of them with missiles or if a portion will be used as empty decoys. If they are all loaded with single-warhead missiles, then the number of warheads on Chinese ICBMs could potentially increase from about 185 warheads today to as many as 415 warheads”.
• If the new silos are loaded with the new MIRVed DF-41 ICBMs, then Chinese ICBMs could potentially carry more than 875 warheads (assuming 3 warheads per missile) when the Yumen and Hami missile silo fields are completed.
• The Pentagon estimates the PLARF’s nuclear stockpile is in the low-200s, of which 100 warheads are on land-based ICBMs. However, China’s nuclear arsenal is still eclipsed by the USA’s and Russia’s combined total of 11,000 nuclear warheads.
• The USA possesses around 3,800 warheads, of which around 1,750 are deployed.
• The discovery of two distinct ICBM silo fields is simply stunning, representing the greatest expansion of China’s nuclear weapon arsenal in its history.
• China is also building at least 16 DF-41 missile silos in Jilantai in Inner Mongolia in a PLARF training area.
• Added together, along with potential new DF-5 silos, China has some 250 silos under construction.
• This is ten times greater than the number of silos that already exist. Once these are completed, China will have more ICBM silos than Russia, and it will have about half as many as the USA.
• Remember that both China and Russia field a large number of ICBMs mounted on road-mobile transport-erector-launchers (TEL), whereas the USA has eschewed this form of delivery.

Beijing likes to harp on about the USA having a “Cold War mentality”, but this degree of missile silo building is unprecedented since the Cold War.

Nepal government sends team to investigate Darchula incident along the Indian border

• Nepal Home Ministry on Mon sent a 5-member probe panel to Darchula district to investigate the incident where a Nepalese man was washed away in the Mahakali river along the Indian border.
• The panel has been asked to submit its report within ten days after carrying out an onsite investigation.
• For now, the home ministry has dismissed the reports of India-Nepal border guarding force Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) allegedly snapping the rope of an improvised cable.
• Assistant chief district officer of Darchula, Jyotsana Bhatta refused to speak to WION on the incident.
• The mishap took place on Friday when Jaya Singh Dhami, 33, who was going to his home in Khalanga, fell into the river while trying to cross it through an improvised cable carriage.
• A day after the incident, the Home Ministry issued a statement, asking the media to not disseminate “misleading” information as the incident was under investigation.
• The ministry spokesperson, Fanindramani Pokharel, in the statement asked all concerned “not to publish any misleading news in the matter as the incident (SSB untying the cable) has not yet been proven true”.
• A team of security forces has been deployed in the incident site for fact-finding purposes, the statement said.
• Earlier, CPN (UML) issued a statement strongly condemning the ‘inhuman and cruel incident’ death of Jaya Singh Dhami and had urged the government of Nepal to inquire properly and to seek clarification from India, and provide compensation.