After Doklam standoff, China intrudes into Arunachal in Dec: Report

Months after India and China ended a tense border standoff over China's attempt to build a road in Bhutanese territory - Doklam, Chinese soldiers with road-building machines reportedly crossed up to 200 metres in Indian territory in Arunachal Pradesh in late December.

According to a Hindustan Times, Chinese soldiers had almost reached a border village in the Upper Siang district of the state before the Indian army stopped them and seized their road building machines including two excavators.

The incursion took place around the time India's National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and China's state councillor Yang Jiechi held border talks in New Delhi last month.

However, it is unclear if there is a face-off between the two armies. A person in the security establishment told HT that there was "no face-off" but the Chinese have left their road construction material on the site.

The deputy commissioner of Upper Siang, Duli Kamduk, denied reports of any such incursion. “Our officials in Tuting subdivision have not reported any Chinese incursion. There is no word from the armed forces too,” he told HT.

The alleged incursion comes four months after India and China called off a 74-day military standoff at the Doklam sector in Sikkim. The stand-off started after Indian Army stopped China from construction a road in the Doklam plateau, which lies at the tri-junction of India, Bhutan and China and is claimed by both Thimpu and Beijing.
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Indian, Chinese troops hold border meet in Arunachal Pradesh

Xi opens BRICS meet, asks members to shelve differences, build mutual trust

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday asked BRICS members to shelve their differences and accommodate each other's concerns by enhancing mutual trust and strategic communication, as he opened the 9th annual summit of the five member emerging economies here.

The opening ceremony of the three-day BRICS summit started with BRICS Business Council in this southeastern Chinese city in Fujian province amid a downpour triggered by typhoon Mawar which had caused widespread disruption to the summit preparations and the city's traffic. The typhoon also caused considerable disruption to the flights.

BRICS - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - is a grouping of the five emerging economies. The BRICS summit brings together the leaders of these countries.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Brazilian President Michel Temer, South African President Jacob Zuma and Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the summit.

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Village near Doklam evacuated, India thickens Sikkim-Tibet border presence

Although army planners are not expecting a Chinese attack on the disputed Doklam bowl, where some 150 Indian soldiers have been in an eyeball-to-eyeball face-off against some 40 Chinese border guards since June, the army is taking no chances.

Villagers in Nathang, a border village 10-12 kilometres as the crow flies from Doklam, have been asked to evacuate their homes and move elsewhere. Nathang is overlooked directly by mountain features at Doklam, like Gyemochen, which China claims as the disputed India-China-Bhutan tri-junction.

Another Indian village nearby, Kuppup, is significantly closer to the border. But it is shielded from the Doklam area by high mountains that Indian troops occupy.

Army spokespersons deny the military has asked for Nathang to be evacuated. The civilian administration, however, is unlikely to have taken such a step unilaterally.

Simultaneously, two Indian mountain divisions –17 Division, headquartered in Gangtok; and 27 Division, based in Kalimpong – are discreetly moving troops to their battle stations on the Sikkim-Tibet border, including areas far removed from Dolkam.
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