Truly strange language to use for referring to #Quad partner - US Navy says it conducted freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) by "challenging India’s excessive maritime claims".
Former Indian Navy chief @arunp2810 weighs in on @US7thFleet freedom of navigation operation in Indian waters:
The freedom of navigation operation in Indian waters was conducted by USS John Paul Jones, a guided missile destroyer
Folks thinking there's too much outrage on this, am aware there are annual @DeptofDefense reports on FONOPs with similar ops in Indian EEZ policy.defense.gov/OUSDP-Offices/…
What took folks by surprise here was the unusual language used in April 7 PR by @US7thFleet
Also another thing to put out a bland, generic annual report (which most people in India wouldn't even bother to read) & to draw attention to a specific FONOP with a press release.
BTW journalists don't outrage - their tweets/comments usually reflect what they are hearing from officials.
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India's envoy to China @VikramMisri has done an interview with PTI. Some quick takeaways & new points:
* "India hopes China will realise its responsibility in de-escalation and disengaging by moving back to its side of LAC"
* Only way to resolve military standoff along LAC is for China to stop erecting new structures.
* China has to stop the practice of transgressing and trying to erect structures on the Indian side of the LAC
* China should stop creating obstructions & hindrances in normal patrolling by Indian troops.
* China's claim of sovereignty over #GalwanValley completely "untenable", such exaggerated claims are not going to help.
A lot of Indian journos were perplexed when @POTUS referred, at his news conference this evening, to a businessman named Patel who planned to set up a steel plant in Alabama. Mainly because there's no one big named Patel in the steel sector.
Well turns out @POTUS meant Lakshmi Mittal, the CEO of @ArcelorMittal, once ranked the 3rd richest person in the world, whom he'd met at a business event earlier in the day.
.@POTUS even spoke to the CEO of @ArcelorMittal, saying "I know you" & referring to his upcoming steel plant in Alabama.
From sources on other side - this appears to be Balakot in Manshera district of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Area has been known to have jihadi training camps since era of Zia-ul-Haq
Jaish-e-Mohammed too has a presence, including camps, in Balakot area. Local reports of aircraft dropping bombs in area early this morning.
Also confirmed from sources on Indian side - this was #Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.