US Senator Bill Hagerty has stirred a controversy after claiming that China used an electromagnetic weapon to melt down Indian soldiers during a border conflict five years ago.
Hagerty did not take the name of the conflict; but refer to it five years ago pointing to the Galwan border conflict where India lost its 20 soldiers in 2020.
The statement came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the SCO Summit.
“The China and India have a long history of grievances. Five years ago, China and India were fighting over a border dispute and China used an electromagnetic weapon to melt Indian soldiers,” he said in a statement.
Formerly, US President Donald Trump remarked that the US had “lost India to darkest China,” before backtracking and calling New Delhi an important partner.
Hagerty with his claims has tried to highlight how international relations change from time to time.
India and China have been trying to rebuild ties after US President Donald Trump slapped high tariffs. Trump last month announced a 50 per cent tariff on goods from India, including a 25 per cent penalty for buying Russian oil.
The 2020 Galwan Conflict was a violent clash between Indian and Chinese troops on June 15, 2020, in the Galwan Valley along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The conflict involved hand-to-hand fighting without firearms, resulting in the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers and an unconfirmed number of Chinese soldiers, though an Australian report suggested Chinese casualties were higher than initially admitted.
