China–India relations

India has received a new batch of S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems from Russia, India Today reported, citing high-ranking sources.

"According to sources, the batch of S-400 missile systems was delivered by ship and is already in service. Parts of the missile system arrived by air and sea and were quickly deployed to their designated places," the newspaper said.

Twenty Indian soldiers were killed during "hand-to-hand' fighting with Chinese troops in a disputed Himalayan region, India's military said, the first deadly clash between the nuclear powers in decades.

Both sides blamed the other for June 15's violence, which followed weeks of rising tensions over their competing territorial claims, with thousands of extra troops deployed.

India's first bullet train project, a $19-billion initiative linking Ahmedabad to Mumbai, was launched on Sept. 14 as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe hailed fast-growing ties between Asia's two biggest democracies.

Chinese President Xi Jinping sought yesterday to move past a tense border dispute with India, telling Prime Minister Narendra Modi the two nuclear-armed neighbors should pursue "healthy, stable" relations, according to China's state media.

Bhutan on Aug. 29 welcomed moves by India and China to withdraw troops from a strategic area which it claims as its territory, ending a months-long military stand-off between its giant neighbors.

The tiny Himalayan country of fewer than a million people had been caught in the middle of what some analysts called the worst crisis in India-China relations in decades.

India and China have agreed to pull back their troops from a face-off in the high Himalayas where China, India and Bhutan meet, signaling a thaw in their months-long standoff, India's government said on Aug. 28.

India's Ministry of External Affairs said India and China have had diplomatic exchanges in recent weeks over the situation on Doklam plateau in the eastern Himalayas.

Amid Doklam standoff, the Chinese Navy has invited the Indian Navy to join hands with the former in order to strengthen security of the Indian Ocean.

Indian and Chinese military forces are reported to be preparing for the possibility of an armed conflict over a disputed area in the Himalayas should a peaceful solution not be found.

A combative Indian defense expert who accused Beijing of running bellicose news stories against Delhi drew a strong response from his Chinese TV show counterpart, who said Indian troops must leave the contested Doklam area if they do not want war.

A border standoff between Chinese and Indian troops on a remote Himalayan plateau has heightened long-standing tensions while ensnaring a tiny kingdom, Bhutan, between the two nuclear-armed powers.

The row has festered for more than a month as India and China refuse to back down in the distant but strategically key territory, reflecting the historic mistrust between the Asian giants.