Joint efforts called for to uphold peace in China-India border areas

BEIJING - China hopes that India will work with China to jointly uphold peace and stability in their border areas, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said here on Friday.

"China hopes that India will work with us, follow faithfully the important consensus reached between the two leaders, abide by the agreements reached between the two governments, and strengthen communication and coordination on properly managing the current situation through diplomatic and military channels," Zhao said.

He made the remarks when elaborating China's position on settling the incident of the Galwan clash.

The Galwan Valley is located on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the west section of the China-India boundary. For many years, the Chinese border troops have been patrolling and on duty in this region, Zhao said.

Since April this year, the Indian border troops have unilaterally and continuously built roads, bridges and other facilities at the LAC in the Galwan Valley. China has lodged representations and protests on multiple occasions but India has gone even further to cross the LAC and make provocations, he said.

By the early morning of May 6, the Indian border troops, who have crossed the LAC by night and trespassed into China's territory, have built fortification and barricades, which impeded the patrol of Chinese border troops.

"They deliberately made provocations in an attempt to unilaterally change the status quo of control and management," Zhao said, adding that the Chinese border troops have been forced to take necessary measures to respond to the situation on the ground and strengthen management and control in the border areas.

In order to ease the situation, China and India have stayed in close communication through military and diplomatic channels. In response to the strong demand of the Chinese side, India agreed to withdraw the personnel who crossed the LAC and demolish the facilities, and so they did.

On June 6, the border troops of both countries held a commander-level meeting and reached consensus on easing the situation.

"The Indian side promised that they would not cross the estuary of the Galwan river to patrol and build facilities and the two sides would discuss and decide phased withdrawal of troops through the meetings between commanders on the ground.

"Shockingly, on the evening of June 15, India's front-line troops, in violation of the agreement reached at the commander-level meeting, once again crossed the LAC for deliberate provocation when the situation in the Galwan Valley was already easing, and even violently attacked the Chinese officers and soldiers who went there for negotiation, thus triggering fierce physical conflicts and causing casualties.

"The adventurous acts of the Indian army have seriously undermined the stability of the border areas, threatened the lives of Chinese personnel, violated the agreements reached between the two countries on the border issue, and breached the basic norms governing international relations. China has lodged solemn representations and strong protests to the Indian side," Zhao said.

During a phone conversation with India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi repeated China's stern position, demanding India to carry out a thorough investigation into the incident, severely punish those who should be held accountable, strictly discipline Indian frontline troops, and immediately stop all provocative actions so as to ensure that such incidents do not happen again.

A second commander-level meeting should happen as soon as possible to deal with the situation on the ground, according to the spokesperson.

The two sides agreed to handle in a just manner the serious situation caused by the Galwan Valley clash, observe the agreement reached during the commander-level meeting, cool down the situation on the ground as soon as possible, and uphold peace and tranquility of the border areas in accordance with bilateral agreements reached so far, Zhao said.