US secretary says China has deployed 60,000 soldiers on India's northern border

By Team Newsable | First Published Oct 10, 2020, 11:51 AM IST

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hits out at Beijing in a Quad group meeting. Mike has said that China has Deployed 60,000 soldiers on India's northern border.

Washington: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said, hitting out at Beijing for its behaviour that China has gathered more than 60,000 troops along the Line of Actual Control with India.

The Foreign Ministers from the Indo-Pacific nations known as the Quad group that include the US, Japan, India, and Australia met in Tokyo on Tuesday in what was their first in-person talks since the coronavirus pandemic began.

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The meeting took place in the backdrop of China's aggressive military behaviour in the Indo-Pacific, South China Sea and along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.

Mike Pompeo told the in an interview on Friday after his return from Tokyo that “The Indians are seeing 60,000 Chinese soldiers on their northern border".

Mike said in the interview "I was with my Foreign Minister counterparts from India, Australia, and Japan - a format that we call the Quad, four big democracies, four powerful economies, four nations, each of whom has real risk associated with the threats imposed attempting to be imposed by the Chinese Communist Party. And they see it in their home countries too".

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“Look, they've stacked 60,000 soldiers against the Indians in the north. When the Australians had the temerity to ask for an investigation of the Wuhan virus and where it began, something that we know a lot about, the Chinese Communist Party threatened them. They bullied them” he said in the interview.

"We need partners and friends. They will certainly try to react. But what the Chinese Communist Party had become accustomed to, frankly, for an awfully long time was watching America bend a knee, watching us turn the other cheek and appease them," he said.

Meanwhile India is expanding bilateral cooperation with Japan, the US and Australia in the Indo-Pacific region.

The US has been pushing for a greater role for India in the Indo-Pacific which is seen by many countries as an effort to contain China's growing clout in the region.

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