China deployed large numbers of troops and weapons along a disputed Himalayan border in violation of bilateral agreements, the Indian Foreign Ministry said, accusing Beijing of escalating tensions and triggering a deadly clash last week.
“The heart of the matter is that since the beginning of May, the Chinese side had been accumulating a large contingent of troops and weapons throughout LAC,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava said Thursday in a briefing. in New Delhi, referring to the Current Control Line (LAC), the de facto border between the Asian nuclear powers.
Srivastava said “this is not in accordance with the provisions of our various bilateral agreements,” referring to treaties that include one from 1993 that dictates that both parties will maintain limited border deployments.
India had to “carry out counterattack deployments” due to the build-up of Chinese, it said when New Delhi first recognized that it had faced Beijing in the concentration of troops on its disputed Himalayan border.
China blamed India for the confrontation, the deadliest between the two nuclear-armed neighbors for at least five decades, and said Indian troops attacked Chinese officers and soldiers.
Responding to China’s increased presence last month, India also deployed large numbers of troops across LAC, Srivastava said, leading to clashes in the Ladakh region of the western Himalayas.
On June 15, Indian and Chinese troops fought for several hours in the Galwan Valley, using stones and embedded nail sticks to strike each other, killing 20 Indian soldiers and injuring at least 76 more. China has not disclosed how many casualties its troops suffered.
Neighbors have blamed each other for the high-altitude battle. After high-ranking military commanders held parliaments this week, both sides agreed to withdraw their troops at the disputed border.
But in satellite images reviewed by Reuters news agency, China appears to have added new structures near the site of the Galwan Valley standoff, which India says is on its side in LAC. These include camouflaged tents or covered structures and a possible new construction camp with walls or barricades.
“Peace and quiet in the border areas is the foundation of our bilateral relationship,” Srivastava said, demanding that China follow through on its promise to calm tensions. “A continuation of the current situation would only vitiate the atmosphere.”
