Trump hopes India, China would be able to resolve border differences

US President Donald Trump hoped on Thursday that India and China would be able to resolve ir current border disputes as he reiterated his offer to help two Asian giants in this regard.

"I kw that China w, and India, are having difficulty, and very very substantial difficulty. And hopefully, y will be able to work that out," Trump told reporters at White House.

"If we can help, we would love to help," he said.

president's remarks in this regard come days after senior Indian and Chinese military commanders held talks aimed at resolving months-long standoff along Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh. two countries agreed to stop sending more troops to ir disputed border in Himalayas.

Meanwhile, Wall Street Journal reported that border conflict is pushing India to look for an asymmetric response: flexing its naval might.

"India is intensifying joint naval maneuvers with US and its allies while building new ships and setting up a network of coastal surveillance outposts that would allow New Delhi to keep an eye on Indian Ocean's maritime traffic," newspaper said.

A "Grand Tamasha" podcast with senior fellow and director of South Asia Program of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, eminent American expert on India and South Asia Ashley Tellis said Trump administration has taken a very transparent position of support for India in this crisis.

"And, of course, it is motivated in part by opportunities to confront China on a grander scale, which sort of makes it part and parcel of US's own bilateral problems with China. But I think re is something more going on here. And more is that I do t think United States had alternative of doing orwise.

"That is, Chinese aggression in this instance has been so blatant that United States could t stand by and eir igre it or t come to India's defence," said Tellis, Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs.

"What are issues here? We all agree that those borderlands along Himalayan territories are undefined. We all agree that y should be negotiated, delimited, demarcated through a peaceful process. We all agree that agreements that China and India have repeatedly reached among mselves since 1990s actually offer a good eugh framework for how to resolve this dispute over long term," he added.

What China has done is that it has thrown all those understandings overboard, Tellis said.

"And it is very important to recognise this that whatever provocations may have been, provocations created by Article 370 or whatever, I do t think y justified a reaction of this kind. Because a diplomatic provocation should have, you kw, elicited a diplomatic response, rar than a quick jump to military action, which has ermous risks.

"By China taking step to move quickly to military action, which has w resulted in loss of lives, I think it has put itself on opposite side of United States, which is arguing more loudly than ever for a rules-based community," he added.

"And so, even beyond Trump administration's own bilateral problems with China, I think y were left in absolutely position but to support India on this count and I think even a Democratic administration would have done same in se circumstances," Tellis said.