Mike Pompeo on India-China border tension: Indians have done their best to respond

US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo on Wednesday (local time), while referring to India-China border tensions, hit out at Chinese saying they took "incredibly aggressive action".

Pompeo said that he has spoken to External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar several times about it.

"I have spoken with Foreign Minister Jaishankar a number of times about this. The Chinese took incredibly aggressive action. The Indians have done their best to respond to that," Pompeo said.

The US Secretary of State also criticised "General Secretary" Xi Jinping and said that the number of both maritime and boundary disputes that the Chinese Communist Party has engaged in is "unequalled anyplace else in the world".

"I'd put this in the context of General Secretary Xi Jinping and his behaviour throughout the region, and indeed, throughout the world. It's - I don't think it's possible to look at that particular instance of Chinese Communist Party aggression in isolation. I think you need to put it in the larger context," he said.

"When I was up here once before, we talked about the number of both maritime and boundary disputes that the Chinese Communist Party has engaged in. I think it's unequaled anyplace else in the world. There aren't many neighbors that could satisfactorily say that they know where their sovereignty ends and that the Chinese Communist Party will respect that sovereignty. That's certainly true now for the people of Bhutan as well," said the US Secretary of State.

Pompeo slammed Chinese Communist Party for engaging in what he termed was "increasingly revisionist effort" and said US under President Donald Trump has taken that seriously.

"This is what the world must come together to respond to. This increasing revisionist effort that the Chinese Communist Party is engaged in is something that President Trump has taken incredibly seriously. The United States hadn't done that in previous administrations," said Pompeo.

"We will respond to this in a way that we think is appropriate, and we have attempted to communicate to the Chinese leadership that we are serious about this. When I say "we," it's not just the United States. We will start very shortly a dialogue with our EU friends on how we collectively can respond to this challenge from the Chinese Communist Party," he added.

The US Secretary of State highlighted that with the spread of coronavirus, world has seen the true colours of Chinese Communist Party.

"I think what's happened with the spread of this virus from Wuhan, China - I think the world has seen the true colors of the Chinese Communist Party, and I am convinced more than ever that the free peoples of the world will come to understand the threat that's presented not only internally inside of China, but importantly, that the impact that General Secretary Xi has on the world is not good for free peoples and democracy-loving peoples...," he said.

"...And the world will come together to respond to that in a way that is powerful and important and will preserve sovereign nations operating under the rule of law in the way that we have all come accustomed to and benefits people all across the world," said the US Secretary of State.

(ANI)

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