China said early Tuesday that its border troops took “countermeasures” after the Indian army crossed the Royal Line of Control (LAC) and fired “warning shots” near Pangong Tso Lake in eastern Ladakh.
Border troops of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) were “forced to take countermeasures” after Indian army soldiers shot at them near the mountainous Shenpao region, near the southern shore of Pangong Tso Lake, according to a statement. issued by the Western Theater Command of China (WAC). in a statement issued early Tuesday.
However, China’s statement did not explain what the “countermeasures” were.
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The PLA’s WAC statement would mean that shots were fired at the disputed border between China and India for the first time in four decades.
India has directly blamed China for tensions across LAC in Ladakh over the past four months and said the only way forward was through negotiations, reflecting the stalemate created by Beijing’s new attempts to disrupt the status quo along the disputed border.
In a statement issued in Mandarin and tweeted by state media, WAC spokesman Colonel Zhang Shuili said that China’s border defense troops were forced to take countermeasures to stabilize the situation after troops of Indian soldiers They “scandalously fired warning shots at PLA border patrol soldiers who were about to negotiate.”
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“During the operation, the Indian army blatantly shot and threatened patrol personnel of the Chinese border defense forces who had made representations before, and the Chinese border defense forces were forced to take countermeasures to stabilize the situation on the ground.” Zhang said in the statement.
“The measure by the Indian side seriously violated related agreements reached by both parties, caused tensions in the region and would easily cause misunderstandings and misjudgments, which is a serious military provocation and is very vile in nature,” the spokesman said.
“We demand that the Indian side immediately stop the dangerous movements, withdraw the personnel who crossed the LAC immediately, strictly control the front-line troops, seriously investigate and punish the personnel who fired the provocative shot and ensure that similar incidents do not return. to happen, “Zhang added.
“PLA WAC troops will firmly discharge their duties and missions and resolutely safeguard national territorial sovereignty,” Zhang said.
The last time the LAC was shot at was in the Tulung La area of Arunachal Pradesh in 1975.
Indian and Chinese troops are embroiled in a bitter confrontation in various locations in eastern Ladakh.
Tensions flared again in the region after China unsuccessfully tried to occupy Indian territory on the southern shore of Pangong Tso Lake last week when the two sides engaged in diplomatic and military talks to resolve the border dispute.
Tension between the two sides escalated after violent clashes in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on June 15 in which 20 members of the Indian army were killed. The Chinese side also suffered casualties, but has not yet released details.
The increase in border tension comes days before a planned meeting between Foreign Minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Moscow on September 10.
On Monday, Jaishankar said that the failure to comply with several understandings on border management dating back to 1993 raised “very important questions” about the state of ties with China.
“If peace and tranquility on the border is not a fact, then it cannot be that the rest of the relationship continues on the same basis, because clearly peace and tranquility is the basis of the relationship,” he said while participating in an online interaction. organized by The Indian Express newspaper on the occasion of the launch of his book ‘The India Way’.
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