India, Australia, Japan and the United States started a strategic navy drill Tuesday in the Bay of Bengal, with all four countries keeping a wary eye on China's growing military power.

India on Thursday passed eight million coronavirus cases, with the world's second-worst-hit country bracing for a possible second wave ahead of winter and a series of religious festivals.

The United States warned Tuesday of China's "threats to security" as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper held top level talks in India. 

India has registered 78,524 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, driving the country's total since the pandemic began to 6.8 million.

The Health Ministry on Thursday also reported 971 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 1,05,526.

Emergency workers have ended a days-long search for victims of an apartment block collapse in western India as the death toll rose to 41, officials said Thursday.

India’s coronavirus cases have jumped by another 96,424 infections in the past 24 hours, showing little signs of slowing down.

The Health Ministry on Friday raised the nation’s confirmed total since the pandemic began to more than 5.21 million. It said 1,174 more people died in the past 24 hours, for a total of 84,372.

The Indian and Chinese foreign ministers have agreed that their troops should disengage from a tense border standoff, maintain proper distance and ease tensions in the cold-desert Ladakh region where the two sides in June had their deadliest clash in decades.

India's S. Jaishankar and China's Wang Yi met in the Russian capital on Thursday night and concurred that "the current situation in the border areas is not in the interest of either side," according to a joint statement issued Friday.

India has become the world's third country to pass four million coronavirus infections, setting a new record daily surge in cases on Saturday as the crisis shows no sign of peaking.

India's coronavirus death toll passed 35,000 on Friday, overtaking that of Italy, as floods affecting millions and killing almost 350 hampered the battle against the pandemic.

Coronavirus cases in India passed one million on Friday, official data showed as authorities struggle to check the spread of the deadly pandemic across the world's second-most populous nation.