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Indian foreign minister stresses on border peace in talks with China’s Wang
- Jaishankar, Wang hold talks in Delhi amid border tensions.
- Jaishankar says peace on border key to better ties.
- Wang to meet PM Modi, hold border talks with Doval.
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar began talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in New Delhi on Monday and stressed that there could be positive momentum in ties between the neighbours only if there was peace on their border.
Wang arrived in the Indian capital on Monday for a two-day visit during which he will hold the 24th round of border talks with Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and also meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“This (discussing border issues) is very important because the basis for any positive momentum in our ties is the ability to jointly maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas,” Jaishankar told Wang in his opening remarks.
It is also important for the two countries to pull back their troops amassed along their disputed border in the western Himalayas since a deadly border clash in 2020, Jaishankar said.
Wang’s visit comes days before Modi travels to China – his first visit in seven years – to attend the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a regional political and security group which also includes Russia.
Relations between the Asian giants began to thaw in October after New Delhi and Beijing reached a milestone pact to lower military tensions on their Himalayan border following talks between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Modi in Russia.
Ties between the two countries had deteriorated sharply following a military clash on their disputed Himalayan border in the summer of 2020 in which 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese soldiers were killed.
Modi calls ‘friend’ Putin
Warming ties between China and India come as relations between New Delhi and Washington are strained.
Trump has issued an ultimatum for India to end its purchases of Russian oil — a key revenue source for Moscow’s war in Ukraine — or Washington will double new import tariffs from 25% to 50%.
Modi said Monday he spoke to “my friend” Vladimir Putin, with the Russian president “sharing insights” on his Alaska summit with Trump last week.
“India has consistently called for a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict and supports all efforts in this regard,” the Indian premier wrote on social media.
Indian hopes that the Alaska meeting would ease US tariff pressure were tempered earlier Monday by US trade adviser Peter Navarro.
“If India wants to be treated as a strategic partner of the US, it needs to start acting like one,” he wrote in a sharply-worded column in the Financial Times.
“India acts as a global clearinghouse for Russian oil, converting embargoed crude into high-value exports while giving Moscow the dollars it needs,” he wrote.
“The proceeds flow to India’s politically connected energy titans, and in turn, into Vladimir Putin’s war chest,” he added, in an apparent swipe at India’s big refiners, which include tycoon Mukesh Ambani.
Navarro said the 50% tariff — due to begin on August 27 — will “hit India where it hurts”.
The United States (U.S.) has opened another military front in Ecuador amid the ongoing Iran war.
According to the U.S. military’s Southern Command, the U.S. and Ecuadorian forces launched joint military operations against “designated terrorist organisations.”
The military did not provide further details; however, it hinted that the operations were part of President Donald Trump’s intensified campaign against drug trafficking in South America.
The Commander of the U.S. Southern Command praised the Ecuadorian residents for their support and unwavering commitment.
Marine General Francis L. Donovan said, “The men and women of Ecuadorian armed forces have demonstrated remarkable courage and resolve through continued actions against narco-terrorists in their country.”
Since returning to the Oval Office for his second term, President Trump has intensified campaign against what the U.S. administration describes as drug trafficking.
The U.S. has carried out around 45 strikes on suspected smuggling vessels killing around 150 people in the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean.
Ecuador has been in a state of emergency regarding narco-terrorism since 2024 after gangs stormed a TV station during a live broadcast and took the staff hostage.
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa sought help from the U.S. against drug-trafficking gangs.
On a visit to the South American country in September last year, the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio vowed to “blow up” gangs if needed and reaffirmed U.S. support in Ecuadorian government’s campaign against narco-terrorists.
Apple on Wednesday unveiled the MacBook Neo, a lower-priced addition to its laptop lineup starting at $599, as it looks to broaden its reach in a price-sensitive PC market while rivals face tighter supply of memory chips.
A lower-priced laptop marks one of Apple’s most aggressive entry points into the PC market in years. The new MacBook will be powered by the A18 Pro chip, the same processor that debuted in the company’s iPhone 16 Pro models in 2024.
At $599, it is far cheaper in both nominal and inflation-adjusted terms than Apple’s previous non-Pro, non-Air MacBook, which debuted in May 2006 at $1,099 — roughly $1,750 in today’s dollars.
The new MacBook is not Apple’s first foray into the price point. The company made a special $699 MacBook Air specially for Walmart using its M1 chip, which originally debuted in 2020, after retiring other models with that chip.
The new MacBook aims squarely at users of Google-powered Chromebooks and lower-end Windows devices, where Microsoft’s own efforts to shift to more battery-life-friendly chips made with technology from Arm have failed to ignite a sales boom.
Its foray into the mid-range PC segment could help Apple broaden its reach among students and first-time buyers.
In the midst of a global memory chip crunch, the new MacBook also comes with only 8 gigabytes of unified memory, half of the 16 gigabytes in the M4-based MacBook and less than the 12 gigabytes in the iPhone 17 Pro.
Global PC and smartphone markets remain highly price sensitive after several quarters of uneven demand, and hardware makers continue to navigate fluctuating component costs, particularly for memory chips.
Apple this week launched its $599 iPhone 17e with higher base storage and refreshed its MacBook Air and Pro lineup with new M5 chips and standard configurations with larger memory, as it looks to defend market share in competitive smartphone and softening PC markets, strained by rising memory costs.
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