Government To Brief Parties Tomorrow On Sikkim Standoff With China

New Delhi: The government will brief opposition parties tomorrow on the stand-off with China at the Sikkim border providing updates on the confrontation which began last month. Home Minister Rajnath Singh will explain the situation on the aggressive dispute with China to political leaders ahead of the parliament session that begins on Monday.

The Home Minister will also provide details to the opposition about Monday night's deadly terror attack on pilgrims on the Amarnath Yatra in which seven people were killed, along with information on the security conditions in Jammu and Kashmir, where two soldiers were killed yesterday in firing from Pakistan.

China has warned that it will not accept any dialogue till India withdraws its soldiers from what Beijing claims as its territory in Doklam. India and Bhutan say the land belongs to the tiny Himalayan kingdom.

Early in June, Indian soldiers stopped Chinese troops from constructing a new road that Delhi has described as a major security concern because it gives China access to the Chicken's Neck - a thin strip of land that connects mainland India to its seven north-eastern states.

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China says it has every right to build a road on its own territory. But India agrees with Bhutan's claim to the region, which the Chinese call Donglang but is called the Doklam plateau by Bhutan.

A spokesperson for the Chinese government said last week that India must pull back its troops "to avoid there being an even more serious situation creating even more serious consequences". Recent weeks have seen strong comments by both countries, with Defence Minister Arun Jaitley stating that China, which has sought to remind India of its defeat in the 1962 war, would do well to remember that India today is "not the same as that of 1962."

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On Monday, the Congress first appeared to deny reports that its Vice President Rahul Gandhi had met with the Chinese ambassador over the weekend. Hours later, the party confirmed the meeting, claiming that it was not unusual and should not be "sensationalised". Mr Gandhi tweeted that "it is my job to be informed on critical issues" and said he had met the envoys of China and Bhutan.

The Congress has criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence on the confrontation. The PM met Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Germany and had an "informal discussion" though Ms Swaraj's ministry has refused to comment on whether the Sikkim confrontation was discussed.