Trump hopes India-China resolve border issues; offers help again
Follow UsStory highlights
Trump, who has been an open critic of China, especially since the beginning of this year, offered to help the two countries maintain peace — yet again
The US President Donald Trump on Thursday said he hopes India and China will be able to work out their border dispute peacefully.
"I know that China now, and India, are having difficulty, and very very substantial difficulty. And hopefully, they will be able to work that out," he told reporters.
The two Asian countries have been facing diplomatic and border disputes for the past few months now, especially since the Galwan Valley face-off between the soldiers of the two Asian countries.
Trump, who has been an open critic of China, especially since the beginning of this year, offered to help the two countries maintain peace — yet again. Trump has time and again offered to be the peacemaker — an offer that both the countries have politely declined. "If we can help, we would love to help."
The statement came after the senior Indian and Chinese military commanders held days-long talks to resolve the standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh.
While Trump is offering help to both the countries, experts believe he has been very transparent about being India's ally. Ashley Tellis, an American expert on India and South Asia, said in a podcast "it is motivated in part by the opportunities to confront China on a grander scale, which sort of makes it part and parcel of the US’s own bilateral problems with China. But I think there is something more going on here. And the more is that I do not think the United States had the alternative of doing otherwise."
"That is, Chinese aggression in this instance has been so blatant that the United States could not stand by and either ignore it or not come to India’s defence,” said Tellis, the Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs.