Beijing hopes that India will work with it to jointly uphold peace and stability in border areas, says Foreign Ministry spokesman.

China calls for India’s cooperation to maintain order at border

China hopes that India will work with China to jointly uphold peace and stability in their border areas, says Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian.

“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.

He added that the Chinese border troops have been forced to take necessary measures to respond to the situation on the ground.

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.

Shockingly, on the evening of June 15, India’s front line troops once again crossed the LAC.

During a phone conversation with India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi repeated China’s stern position, demanding India to carry out a thorough investigation, severely punish those responsible and immediately stop all provocative actions.