'None Of Their Business': US On China's Objection To Joint Military Drills With India

Ambassador Elizabeth Jones said, "I think I would point it to the kind of statement that we heard from our Indian colleagues to the effect that it is none of their business." 

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The United States repeated India's stance on Friday, dismissing China's resistance to an India-US joint military drill along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Uttarakhand as "none of their business," news agency PTI reported

Ambassador Elizabeth Jones, the recently appointed US Charge d'Affaires in New Delhi, has stated that Washington is interested in assisting New Delhi's attempts to become more capable, and that its capacities are focused in ways that it considers vital.

In an interview with a group of journalists, she stated that the United States' relationship with India is one of its "most consequential," and that Washington sees a natural collaboration between the two countries in a variety of vital sectors such as defence technology and climate change.

In response to China's objection to the India-US military exercise being held in Uttarakhand, Jones said, "I think I would point it to the kind of statement that we heard from our Indian colleagues to the effect that it is none of their business." 

The Chinese foreign ministry slammed the "Yudh Abhyas" exercise at Auli, Uttarakhand, on Wednesday, saying that it violated boundary accords inked by China and India in 1993 and 1996.

Reacting to Chinese reaction on the exercise, external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said at a weekly media briefing on Thursday, "Military exercise in Auli has got nothing to do with the 1993 and 1996 agreements." He also said that "India exercises with whomsoever it chooses to and it does not give a Veto to third countries on this issue."

The 1996 accord was about confidence-building measures in the military arena along the LAC with China in the India-China border areas, whereas the 1993 agreement is about sustaining peace and tranquilly along the LAC with China in the India-China border areas.

China expressed its opposition to the joint military drills between India and the US on Wednesday, claiming that they were against the spirit of the two border accords that Beijing and New Delhi had signed.

In Auli, roughly 100 km from the LAC, the 18th iteration of the India-US joint military exercise "Yudh Abhyas" is now taking place.

(With Inputs From PTI)