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WASHINGTON: The United States stands ready to help resolve the dispute between India and China over the mountainous border that runs through the western Himalayas, President Donald Trump said on Friday (September 4).
Trump told reporters that the situation was “very unpleasant,” adding that the two countries “were going to do it with a lot more force than many people understand.”
Both sides deployed additional forces along the border after a clash in June, during which 20 Indian soldiers were killed in hand-to-hand combat.
The defense ministers of India and China were due to hold talks in Moscow on Friday, the highest-level face-to-face political contact since tensions erupted along the disputed mountainous border in May.
A US government source told Reuters in Washington that the US assessment is that neither China nor India is interested in pushing the dispute to the point of engaging in war.
Trump, asked about the dispute at a press conference at the White House, said Washington was talking to both countries about what it could do to help defuse the situation.
“We are ready to help with regard to China and India. If we can do something, we would love to get involved and help,” he said.
Trump has offered to mediate between the two nuclear-armed nations in the past. China has said that there is no need for a third party to mediate and India was also cold on the idea.
