India warns China of serious impact on ties, Modi talks of ‘befitting’ reply

AGGRESSIVE TONE China alleges Indian soldiers trespassed, says New Delhi must investigate incident and get its border troops to behave

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India’s integrity and sovereignty is supreme for us... Nobody should have any iota of doubt about this. India wants peace. But on provocation, India will give › a befitting reply

...the sacrifice made by our soldiers will not go in vain. The country will be proud...that our soldiers have been martyred while they were fighting

NARENDRA MODI, Prime Minister

NEWDELHI/BEIJING: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India would give a befitting reply to any provocation even as New Delhi and Beijing on Wednesday spoke of the need to avoid actions that could escalate matters along their disputed border, two days after a violentface-offleft20Indiansoldiers dead.Bothsidesagaintradedcharges on what triggered Monday’s face-offinGalwanValleyalongthe Line of Actual Control (LAC), the focus of the current tensions, with external affairs minister S Jaishankar telling his counterpart Wang Yi in a phone conversation the Chinese side’s “pre-meditated and planned action” was behind the violence and casualties.

This was the first time Jaishankar spoke to Wang since the stand-off began in early May and marked the highest political contact to address the tensions after talksbetweenmilitarycommanders failed to break the impasse.

The Indian readout of the conversation said, “Neither side would take any action to escalate mattersandinstead,ensurepeace and tranquillity as per bilateral agreements and protocols.”

An Indian Army convoy moves along a highway leading to Ladakh, at Gagangeer in Ganderbal district of Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday. WASEEM ANDRABI/HT