Ministry to India: Keep troops in line

Foreign border guards obstructed and jostled Chinese counterparts

China expressed its "strong dissatisfaction" over the behavior of Indian border troops in the western section of the two countries' border last week and urged India to place them under stricter supervision, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said on Monday.

On Aug 15, Indian border troops obstructed Chinese border troops, who were conducting normal patrols in the Pangong Lake area, on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control, spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a daily news conference in Beijing.

The Indian troops "acted fiercely", aggressively bumping into the Chinese personnel and injuring some through physical contact, Hua said.

Hua's statement came a week after reports emerged of an altercation between the two countries' troops in the area, on Aug 15.

"The acts the Indian side has engaged in violate the consensus the two countries reached on maintaining peace at the border regions, and it threatens the situation of the western section of the China-India boundary," Hua said.

China has lodged solemn representations with India over the incident, she said.

"China urges India to observe the agreements the two countries have reached, effectively obey the 1959 Line of Actual Control, strictly restrain the Indian border troops' behavior and take effective measures to maintain peace and stability in the two countries' border regions," Hua said.

On Monday, Indian President Ram Nath Kovind visited the area near Pangong Lake, Indian media reported.

The Aug 15 incident came about two months after the Indian troops illegally crossed the Sikkim section of China-India boundary, the only delimited section of the boundary, into China's Donglang to block Chinese road construction in mid-June.

China has repeatedly asked India to immediately and unconditionally withdraw its troops from Donglang.

Sun Hongnian, a researcher of China's southwest borders at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, called the incident between the Chinese and Indian border troops another provocation by India since tensions rose in Donglang.

India has done "very poorly" in keeping in mind the "bigger picture" of the two countries border, and it has even disrupted the situation multiple times, which will negatively affect the two countries' ties and their cooperation, Sun said.

wangqingyun@chinadaily.com.cn